FT MEADE 



STATE OF tEW YORK 

STATE BOARD OF CHARITIES 


!5 |)RT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE 

sg Si Commissioners Stewart, Smith, Kevin and McGuire, 
.ppointed' m ’’Compliance with a Joint Resolution of 
the Legislature, Adopted^ April f, I9J5, to 
Investigate Alleged Conditions 


Mew York City Children's Hospitals and 
Schools 

AT RANDALL’S ISLAND 


SUBMITTED TO AND UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED BY THE 


STATE BOARD OF CHARITIES 


At its meeting of July 14, 1915 


ALBANY 
j. B. LYON COMPANY, 
1915 



















































. 



























/ 

STATE OF NEW YORK 

STATE BOARD OF CHARITIES 


/£f 

REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE * ¥ 

consisting of Commissioners Stewart, Smith, Kevin and McGuire^ 
Appointed in Compliance with a joint Resolution of 
the Legislature, Adopted April l, t9I5, to 
Investigate Alleged Conditions 


AT THE 


New York City Children's Hospitals and 
Schools 

AT RANDALL’S ISLAND 


SUBMITTED TO AND UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED BY THE 


STATE BOARD OF CHARITIES 

At its meeting of July 14, 19 5 


ALBANY 

J. B. LYON COMPANY, PRINTERS 
1915 




D. of D„ 

UGoJ 19 5 



STATE OF NEW YORK 
STATE BOARD OF CHARITIES 


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Report of the Special Committee consisting of Commissioners 
Stewart, Smith, Kevin and McGuire, appointed in compliance 
with a Joint Resolution of the Legislature adopted April 1, 1915, 
to investigate alleged conditions at the New York City Children’s 
Hospitals and Schools at Randall’s Island. 

Submitted to and unanimously adopted by the State Board of 
Charities at its meeting of July 14, 1915. 

Letters of Transmittal to the Legislature 

New York, July 14, 1915 

To Hon. Edward S. Schoeneck, Lieutenant-Governor and 
President of the Senate: 

Sir. — By direction of the State Board of Charities, I have 
the honor herewith to transmit to the Senate a copy of the 
report of the Special Committee appointed by the Board in 
compliance with a Joint Resolution of the Legislature adopted 
April 1, 1915, to make inquiry into the existence of alleged 
evils, abuses and defects in the management of the New 
York City Children’s Hospitals and Schools at Randall’s 
Island, and as to the action taken to remedy them by the Com¬ 
missioner of Public Charities of the said city. 

Yours very respectfully, 

WILLIAM R. STEWART, 

President. 

New York, July 14, 1915 

To Hon. Thaddeus C. Sweet, Speaker of the Assembly: 

Sir. —By direction of the State Board of Charities, I have 
the honor herewith to transmit to the Assembly a copy of 
the report of the Special Committee appointed by the Board 
in compliance with a Joint Resolution of the Legislature 
adopted April 1, 1915, to make inquiry into the existence of 
alleged evils, abuses and defects in the management of the 
New York City Children’s Hospitals and Schools at Randall’s 
Island, and as to the action taken to remedy them by the 
Commissioner of Public Charities of the said city. 

Yours very respectfully, 

WILLIAM R. STEWART, 
President. 


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R E PO R 1 


To the State Board of Charities: 

Gentlemen. — The undersigned, constituting a Special Com¬ 
mittee of the State Board of Charities, appointed to make in¬ 
vestigation into certain alleged conditions at the Hew York City 
Children’s Hospitals and Schools on Randall’s Island, which in¬ 
stitutions are administered by the Department of Public Charities 
of the said city, respectfully reports as follows: 

The Character of the Institutions 
These hospitals and schools have a population of approximately 
2,000 inmates, some 1,700 of whom are mentally deficient chil¬ 
dren, including a considerable number of low grade idiots. The 
other patients are mainly crippled children and those suffering 
from minor contagious diseases of the eyes, skin and scalp. They 
are insufficiently housed in old buildings and cared for in large 
part by poorly paid attendants. 

Allegations of Mismanagement 
The State Board at its meeting of March 10, 1915, gave consid¬ 
eration to a number of widely published statements, apparently of 
a semi-official character and emanating from the officers of the 
Department of Public Charities of the city of Hew York, alleging 
the existence of conditions indicating gross mismanagement of the 
Hew York City Chi ] dren’s Hospitals and Schools at Randall’s 
Island, for which the superintendent thereof was said to be re¬ 
sponsible and had been cited to appear on March 13, 1915, before 
the head of the department in order to make the explanation per¬ 
mitted by the charter of the city of Hew York. As showing the de¬ 
ductions drawn from the charges emanating from the Department 
of Public Charities with reference to conditions at the institutions 
in question the following head lines from Hew York City papers 
of March 6, 1915, are quoted: 


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6 


(1) “ Woman called brutal in charge of City waifs — Ran¬ 
dall's Island investigators accuse Mrs. Mary C. Dunphy— 
Deaths because of laxity are alleged." 

(2) “ Beat children in City's care, says Kingsbury — 
Mary C. Dunphy, Superintendent on Randall's Island, ac¬ 
cused — Sanitation called lax and food poor." 

(3) “ Cruelty charged at City Hospital — Mrs. Dunphy, 
Randall's Island head ordered to appear before Kingsbury — 
Growth of infection — Feeble-Minded Children ill fed and 
poorly clothed, say investigators." 

(4) “ Insane children cruelty victims report charges —- 
Mrs. Mary C. Dunphy, Superintendent on Randall’s Island, 
accused — Details tell of torture inflicted — Two thousand 
wards of city not safe-guarded against contagious disease, it 
is said." 

(5) “ Suspend chief of institutions on Randall's Island — 
Charge that Mrs. Dunphy permitted attendants to treat in¬ 
humanly the feeble-minded children there — Assert she did 
not run the hospital properly — Declare she failed to safe¬ 
guard against fire and the spread of diseases." 

(6) “ Charge city wards died from neglect — Mrs. Mary 
C. Dunphy, Randall's Island Superintendent, ordered to stand 
trial — 12 per cent mortality in a, year — All attributed to 
infectious diseases —Children strapped up and ill-fed, report 
says." 

In order that the basis for these alarming head lines may be 
better understood the following item from one of the New York 
morning papers of March 6, 1915, is repeated in full: 

“ Mrs. Mary C. Dunphy, who has been superintendent of 
the Hew York City Children's Hospitals and Schools on Ran¬ 
dall's Island for more than twenty-two years, was ordered 
yesterday by Commissioner of Charities John A. Kingsbury 
to appear before him on March 13 to explain charges that 
she has permitted feeble-minded children to be treated in¬ 
humanly and brutally; that because of her laxity in prevent¬ 
ing the spread of infectious diseases many inmates died and 
that she has failed to provide sufficient food for many of the 
inmates. 

“ These are the most serious charges of an ugly list pre¬ 
pared after fourteen months of investigation ordered by Com¬ 
missioner Kingsbury and carried out by Deputy Commis¬ 
sioner Wright and Howard 33. Dinwiddie, general inspector 
of the department. 


7 


“ Mayor Mitchell, Corporation Counsel Frank L. Polk, 
Assistant Corporation Counsel Josiah Stover and other persons 
in or out of official life who are keenly interested in the proper 
conduct of New York’s charitable institutions have been cog¬ 
nizant of the charges for many weeks, but so shocking was 
the situation developed and so savagely did they reflect upon 
the Randall’s Island superintendent, Mrs. Dunphy, that Com¬ 
missioner Kingsbury delayed until last night to permit them 
to become public. 

“ Mbs. Dunpixy III in Bed 

“ Even then Commissioner Kingsbury would not permit 
the charges to he made public verbatim, nor would he permit 
himself to be quoted. The list of charges was handed to the 
reporters by Commissioner Kingsbury’s secretary and 
deputies last night on the express understanding that they 
were to be published only in paraphase. Mr. Kingsbury 
evaded interviewers, confined himself to his private office and 
communicated with the press only through his secretary and 
deputies. 

“ Mrs. Dunphy, who is nearing her sixtieth year, has been 
superintendent of the Kandall’s Island hospitals and schools 
since October 12, 1892, at a. salary of $3,500 a year. She was 
ill in bed last night in her home on Randall’s Island. Had 
it not been for her illness she would have been required to 
appear this morning to answer the charges, but in answer to 
Commissioner Kingsbury’s demand that she appear to-day 
she submitted a certificate of illness signed by Dr. C. F. 
D’Alton, asserting that she was suffering from bronchitis and 
pleurisy and unable to leave her bed. 

“A reporter for The Sun who called the Randall’s Island 
telephone exchange, Harlem 6764, was informed by a man 
who said he was the steward of the institution, that Mrs. 
Dunphy’s trained nurse would not permit her to be disturbed, 
and that it would be impossible, therefore, for any one to 
talk to her at her bedside or over the telephone. 

“ Explanation Refused 

“ Commissioner Kingsbury said he submitted the charges 
to Mrs. Dunphy three weeks ago, showing her one list of de¬ 
tailed accusations after another, and that she told him certain 
persons were merely continuing an old conspiracy to get her 
job. He insisted that she explain, but she declined, he says, 
to make any explanations. 


8 


“ Commissioner Kingsbury’s deputies assert that former ad¬ 
ministrations have investigated Mrs. Dunphy’s management 
of the institutions, but that nothing ever came of the investi¬ 
gations. There is a suggestion in the Charities Department 
that denominational influences have clashed strongly over 
Mrs. Dunphy’s conduct of the institutions. 

“ It does not appear on the surface that denominational 
influences have withheld the action of Mayor Mitchel, the 
Corporation Counsel and Commissioner Kingsbury in decid¬ 
ing finally to give to the public the results of their investi¬ 
gation, but there was a long series of conferences yesterday 
afternoon and last night, conferences between the Mayor and 
Commissioner Kingsbury, between Corporation 'Counsel Polk 
and Mr. Kingsbury, and other seriously worded talks between 
city officials before the matter of the charges was released. 
The understanding was, however, that Mayor Mitchel was 
strongly in favor of publishing the charges. 

“At all events Commissioner Kingsbury broke the seal of 
secrecy last night. He permitted his subordinates to explain 
that, when he first took office, he received numerous and 
serious complaints against Mrs. Dunphy’s management of 
the Randall’s Island institution. 

“ Largest of Its Kind 

“ It may be remarked here that the hospitals and schools 
for sick and defective children comprise probably the largest 
institution of the sort in the world. The daily census taken 
on March 3, 1915, showed that there were 2,018 persons in 
the hospitals and schools. Of these 1,033 were males and 
985 females, and about 75 per cent, of the whole number 
were children under 16 years of age. 

“ Commissioner Kingsbury, hearing so many complaints, 
heard also very strong praise for Mrs. Punphy, delivered by 
persons who were assured that she was competent and kind. 
He made up his mind that the best way to get at the truth 
was to order an investigation which should be long and pains¬ 
taking. That investigation was begun fourteen months ago 
and General Inspector Howard B. Dinwiddie was instructed 
to make a complete and accurate report of conditions as he 
and his coworkers found them. Mr. Dinwiddie employed 
men and women agents. One of these, in concealing her 
identity and purpose, worked for many weeks as a hospital 
helper. Other were employed in night or day work in the 
schools and hospitals. 


9 


“ From time to time Mr. Dinwiddie submitted reports, 
some of which werei of a few typewritten pages, others of 
which were voluminous. Not satisfied, as he says, to take 
these reports at their face value as they came to him from 
time to time, Commissioner Kingsbury ordered reiinvestiga¬ 
tions made. He endeavored, he says, to go over and over 
doubtful ground and to eliminate charges, which appeared to 
be built on speculation rather than upon observation. 

“ The matter appeared to him to be so serious (since it 
showed apparently frightful conditions existing in one of the 
city’s largest charities) that he consulted with Mayor Mitchel 
and the Corporation Counsel, not once but many times. It 
is said too that the Mayor, not at all satisfied with the way 
many similar institutions have been conducted, was horrified 
by the reports transmitted to him, and that he, like Mr. 
Kingsbury, hesitated at first to believe that such cruel prac¬ 
tices as were alleged had been carried on. 

“ Eight Charges m List 

“ Satisfied finally that the investigation had disclosed all 
that was necessary, Commissioner Kingsbury embodied the 
report made by General Inspector Dinwiddie into a set of 
charges. These accuse Mrs. Dunphy of permitting cruelties 
and of permitting such laxity as caused the death of inmates 
in 1913 and 1914. There are eight charges in the list Mrs. 
Dflnphy is summoned to answer. 

“ The first is that through 1913 and 1914 she permitted 
corporal punishment to be inflicted upon many feeble-minded 
children and that she permitted male and female attendants 
and other inmates to beat and kick and otherwise treat in a 
brutal and inhuman manner children who had been sent to* 
Randall’s Island. 

“ The second charge is that Supt. Dunphy in 1913 and 
1914 permitted attendants to tie the hands of feeble-minded 
children, place them in strait-jackets and restraining sheets 
without the order of a physician and fasten them with cords 
and straps to beds, chairs and benches. 

“ The third charge is that Mrs. Dunphy in 1913 and up 
to August 31, 1914, so failed to establish and maintain proper 
safeguard against the spread of infectious diseases among the 
feeble-minded and other children committed to Randall’s 
Island that these results followed: 

“ Children afflicted with infectious diseases were permitted 
to eat in the same dining room with others not diseased and 
children suffering from one sort of disease were allowed in 


10 


the same room with children suffering from another sort of 
disease, both infectious. 

“ From July 1, 1913 to June 30, 1914, approximately 70 
per cent, of the feeble-minded patients and approximately 62 
per cent, of the custodial children who were in quarantine 
wards or were for two weeks or more in the hospital wards 
were suffering from infectious diseases contracted subsequent 
to their admission to the institution. Twelve per cent, of 
those contracting infectious diseases while inmates of the 
institution died as a result. 

“ A majority of the children admitted from January 1, 
1913, to June 30, 1914, were not detained in the reception 
hospital for fourteen days. Such detention is required by the 
rules of the department. 

“ Insufficient Food Charged 

“ The fourth charge is that between June 20, 1914, and 
September 3, 1914, Mrs. Dunphy failed to provide enough 
food for many of the inmates, and these were obliged to 
breakfast repeatedly on bread and coffee or bread and cocoa, 
although other food was available and was supposed to be 
served by orders of the department. It is further stated that 
neither quality nor quantity of the food served was up to the 
standards required, and that the inmates of the institution 
did not get proper nourishment. Inadequate supervision 
over the distribution of food is included in the charge. 

u The fifth charge is that Superintendent Dunphy did not 
maintain proper standards for the decent care of the persons 
of the children committed to her charge. Among those 
laxities in sanitation and cleanliness charged is that the 
washing of children before breakfast was habitually dis¬ 
regarded. 

“ The sixth charge is that Superintendent Dunphy so failed' 
to provide for the comfort of the children that feeble-minded 
children and mentally normal children were permitted to eat 
at the same table and were not separated while on the play¬ 
grounds. 

“ The seventh charge is that the clothing provided for the 
use of the dependent inmates was freely used by the em¬ 
ployees at Randall’s Island. 

“ The eighth charge accuses Mrs. Dunphy of failing to 
adopt and enforce necessary and proper regulations for fire 
protection. It is specified that no systematic fire drills were 
held among the employees of the institution; that cripples, 
who were unable to ascend or descend stairs unless aided, and 


11 


less responsible idiots, were permitted to sleep on the upper 
floors of the dormitories in non-fireproof buildings from 
which it would have been a, hard task to get them out if fire 
had occurred, and that night watchmen have been permitted 
to violate the rules by failing to make their rounds. 

“ The Sun publishes, above the sense and, as. nearly as 
accords with the understanding expressly required by Com¬ 
missioner Kingsbury, the specific accusations contained in the 
list of charges against Mrs. Dunphy. It. was expected she 
would appear in answer to the charges at 11 o’clock this 
morning, but on account of the physician’s certificate sub¬ 
mitted in her behalf the hearing was postponed for one week. 

“ Two Accusations 

“ It was made known through Commissioner Kingsbury’s 
secretary and deputies that General Inspector Dinwiddie’s 
complete! report contains, numerous specific charges in support 
of each general charge. Before it was decided not to make 
public these specific accusations involving cruelty and mis¬ 
management, Mr. Kingsbury’s subordinates mentioned two 
accusations. 

“ One was that agents employed in the investigation went 
through the dormitories at night. When they lifted the bed 
clothing of some children, pitiful voices, begged them ‘ Don’t 
hit me! ’ 

“Another was that some of the employees on Randall’s 
Island have learned the trick of beating children without* 
leaving black and blue marks on tender flesh. 

“ Hundreds of the employees are listed as hospital helpers. 
They are poorly paid, the majority receiving $120 or $150 
a year, and some do not by any means represent very highly 
humanized types. 

“ Mrs. Dunphy is. described in the office of the Commis¬ 
sioner of Charities as. a woman of heavy, powerful physique. 
It. is no secret in the department that her successor, provided 
the movement to oust her is successful, will be Deputy Com¬ 
missioner of Charities William J. Doherty, who is said to 
have made a special study of the treatment and care of der 
fectives and dependents.” 

Alleged Conditions Unknown to This Board 
The presence of these alleged conditions was unknown to the 
members and the officers of the State Board of Charities, some of 
whom were most familiar through administrative, as well as super¬ 
visory experience with the Randall’s Island institutions. The 


12 


chairman of this Committee, Mr. Stewart, represents the first ju¬ 
dical district and has officially visited the institutions in question 
annually for the past thirty-three years. The second member of 
the Committee, Dr. Stephen Smith, has been familiar, from an ad¬ 
ministrative as well as a supervisory view point, with conditions 
on the island for more than a generation. The Secretary of the 
Board, as Commissioner of Public Charities of the city of New 
York from 1906 to 1910, administered the institutions and was 
familiar with their work. The conditions alleged to exist had not 
been discovered by the Board’s inspectors in their frequent and 
careful examination of the institutions, nor were they apparently 
known to the “ New York City Visiting Committee ” of the State 
Charities Aid Association, of which committee Mr. Homer Folks, 
the Secretary of the Association, is President. At least no reports 
covering them were made by the Association to this Board, as ob¬ 
viously contemplated by the provisions of section 32 of the State 
Charities Law, and section 121 of the General Poor Law. It 
does appear, however, that on March 24, 1915, Mr. Folks sent a 
long letter to Mayor Mitchel, to whom the Association is not re¬ 
quired by statute to report, in support , of the charges made and 
then pending against the superintendent of the Randall’s Island 
institutions. 

This letter, which was subsequently read into the record, de¬ 
serves more than passing notice. So far as it is evidence at all 
it relates to general conditions which it alleges existed when its 
writer was Commissioner of Public Charities some twelve years 
ago, and for practically all of which he has apparently always 
sought to hold the superintendent responsible, overlooking to a 
great extent the formidable task resting upon her shoulders, a task 
difficult to perform at best, but doubly difficult without the friendly 
and continuous co-operation of the head of the Department. Com¬ 
mencing with a recital of its writer’s adverse impressions of the 
Randall’s Island institutions formed some twenty-two years ago, 
and obviously continued ever since, it refers to unsatisfactory con¬ 
ditions of administration and supervision of and over the institu¬ 
tions there situated. 

The criticism so far as it refers to the physical condition of 
the buildings and grounds, is obviously at variance with the report 


13 


of the “ City Visiting Committee ” of the State Charities Aid 
Association. This last named body in its report of December, 
1914 (which forms part of the record herein), expressly states that 
the wards and dormitories are “ kept so spotlessly clean that the 
visitor at times hardly realizes how inadequate the buildings 
really are. * * * Everything in these old buildings/’ — the 

report continues, — “ floors, beds, bedding, windows, etc., is kept 
scrupulously clean.” 

The inadequacy of the buildings and the need for better paid 
employees and more of them were matters of no recent creation, 
but dated back for many years and had been the subject of re¬ 
peated adverse official comment. As a matter of fact, for these 
last named evils, the remedy — in the shape of increased appro¬ 
priations,— rested solely with the city’s fiscal authorities. 

In so far as the letter itself purports to prove the unfitness of 
those in charge of the Island, it should be borne in mind that 
Mr. Folks, when Commissioner, contented himself with an ex¬ 
pression of willingness to oust the Superintendent, hut took no 
actual steps toward making a change. His explanation for the 
failure to do so, is the somewhat astonishing statement that such 
a move might have injected a sectarian issue into an approaching 
political campaign. 

Finally, the whole letter had to he read in connection with Mr. 
Folk’s statement, made while testifying, that he had not visited 
the Island during the last five years. 

Resolution Appointing Special Committee oe Investigation 

The State Board of Charities at its meeting of March 10, 1915, 
adopted the following resolution: 

“ Resolved, That in accordance with the provisions of sec¬ 
tions 13 and 16 of chapter 57 of the Laws of 1909, constitut¬ 
ing chapter 55 of the Consolidated Laws, and known as the 
State Charities Law, and sections 117 and 119 of chapter 
46 of the Laws of 1909, constituting chapter 42 of the Con¬ 
solidated Laws, and known as the State Poor Law, Commis¬ 
sioners William R. Stewart, J. Richard Kevin, M. D., and 
Stephen Smith, M. D., he and they hereby are appointed a 
special committee to make such investigations, and at such 
time, as they may deem necessary into the alleged conditions 


14 


at the Children’s Hospitals and Schools at Randall’s Island 
and into the affairs and management of the Department of 
Public Charities of the City of Hew York, and that they 
be empowered, if they consider such action necessary or ex¬ 
pedient, to request the assistance in such investigation of the 
District Attorney of the County of Hew York, or the Attor¬ 
ney-General of the State of Hew York.” 

Because of the complication which arose from the fact that the 
hearing in the case of the superintendent had been postponed from 
time to time, on account of her illness, the Committee thought it 
wise to delay the investigation. 

Joint Resolution of the Legislature 
On April 1, 1915, however, the Legislature, having taken cog¬ 
nizance of the situation, adopted the following Joint Resolution 
which was duly certified to the Board by the Clerks of the Senate 
and the Assembly, respectively: 

“ Whereas, from reports in the public press of the State, 
the Commissioner of Public Charities of the City of Hew 
York has for a year or more been cognizant of alleged evils, 
abuses and defects in the management of the Hew York City 
Children’® Hospitals and Schools on Randall’s Island, 
whereby the health and the lives of the mentally enfeebled 
and other inmates of such institutions have been seriously en¬ 
dangered, and 

“ Whereas, it further appears from said reports that the 
Commissioner, while cognizant of such conditions has taken 
no steps to remedy them, and 

“Whereas, it is the duty of the State to see that the in¬ 
mates of public institutions are properly cared for and has' 
made it the function of the State Board of Charities to in¬ 
vestigate all alleged conditions of this nature, 

“Resolved (if the Assembly concur), That the attention 
of the State Board of Charities be called to those reports and 
that the said Board be requested, with the aid and coopera¬ 
tion of the Attorney-General, to institute an immediate in¬ 
quiry into these alleged conditions and to submit a report 
thereon to the Legislature as soon as possible.” 

Delay Due to Superintendent’s Illness 
The illness of the superintendent still continuing, it was not 
until May 13, 1915, that the Committee actually commenced the 


15 


taking of testimony. Meantime at the Committee’s request, the 
Attorney-General had detailed Hon. Leonard J. Obermeier, the 
Deputy Attorney-General in charge of the Hew York office, to co¬ 
operate with the Committee in the inquiry, and in company with 
the Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Stewart, he visited and made 
an inspection of the Randall’s Island institutions on April 17, 
1915. The State Board, on request of the Committee, by resolu¬ 
tion adopted April 14, 1915, added Commissioner Horace Mc¬ 
Guire, from the seventh judicial district, to its membership, and 
the Corporation Counsel of the city of Hew York appointed Mr. 
Joseph P. Cotton, Jr., to represent the city at the hearings. Mr. 
Cotton was in attendance at all of the hearings except the one of 
June 18th on Randall’s Island, at which the city was repre¬ 
sented by Assistant Corporation Counsel Stover. 

Investigation Complicated by Charges Against the Super¬ 
intendent 

That the investigation was of necessity complicated by the 
charges against the superintendent is a source of regret to the Com¬ 
mittee. The removal of employees must, of course, rest in the dis¬ 
cretion of the head of the department, and any issue with regard 
to the legality of any such removal is ordinarily, at least so far 
as the State Board of Charities is concerned, one for the courts 
to determine. This Board has no wish to intervene in such mat¬ 
ters. Conditions at the institutions within its jurisdiction are, 
however, always pertinent subjects for inquiry, and furthermore, 
it is the Board’s rule to make such examination whenever serious 
irregularities are said to exist in any institution subject to its 
visitation. The complication in this instance arose from the very 
nature of the case. For such complication the head of the Depart¬ 
ment of Public Charities of Hew York City, is primarily responsi¬ 
ble because he and his representatives gave wide currency through 
the public press to the alarming statements with regard to alleged 
conditions of brutality and neglect at the Randall’s Island Chil¬ 
dren’s Hospitals and Schools, for which he charged the superin¬ 
tendent with responsibility. The gravity of these published 
accounts and the wide circulation given them throughout the 
State, made an investigation necessary. 


16 


The Hearings Held and the Witnesses Heard by the 
Committee 

During the course of the investigation eleven hearings were held, 
ten of them at the office of the Board at 287 Fourth avenue Hew 
York City, on May 13, 17, 18, 26 and 27, and on June 2, 4, 9, 10 
and 16, 1915, while the final hearing was held at Randall’s Island 
on June 18, 1915. At these hearings witnesses were heard under 
oath as follows: 

Hon. Henry C. Wright, First Deputy Commissioner, De¬ 
partment of Public Charities. 

Mr. Howard B. Dinwiddie, General Inspector, Depart¬ 
ment of Public Charities. 

Mr. Stuart A. Rice, Confidential Inspector to Commis¬ 
sioner of Public Charities. 

Mis© Elizabeth Dinwiddie, Social Investigator, Depart¬ 
ment of Public Charities. 

Hon. John A. Kingsbury, Commissioner, Department of 
Public Charities. 

Dr. William J. Books, Resident Physician at the City in¬ 
stitutions on Randall’s Island. 

Dr. David Parks and Mr. Clarence E. Ford of the inspec¬ 
tion staff of the State Board of Charities. 

Dr. Max G. Schlapp, Dr. Cornwell, Dr. Bisch, Dr. F. 
Meyers and Dr. William F. Stechmann, members of the 
former Atypical Board of the City Hospitals and Schools on 
Randall’s Island. 

Dr. Walter H. Brundage, formerly Resident Physician at 
the City institutions on Randall’s Island. 

Rev. John A. Jansen, present Roman Catholic Chaplain, 
at the City institutions on Randall’s Island. 

Joseph D. Flick, present Acting Superintendent of the 
the City institutions on Randall’s Island. 

Dr. Carlos F. MacDonald, Alienist and former President 
of the Atypical Board. 

Hon. Homer Folks, Secretary, State Charities Aid Asso¬ 
ciation. 

Dr. Edward W. Peet and Dr. William S. Bainbridge, of 
the Medical Board of the City institutions on Randall’s 
Island. 

Rev. David P. Berenherg, Jewish Rabbi and Chaplain at 
Randall’s Island. 

Richard Beatty, former Hospital Helper at the City in¬ 
stitutions on Randall’s Island. 


17 


Dr. E. Elliott Harris, President of the Medical Board and 
Attending Physician at the City institutions on Randall’s 
Island. 

Mrs. Alida B. Hazard, Voluntary Social Worker. 

Dr. William L. Stowell, Consulting Physician and Member 
of the General Medical Board of the City institutions on 
Randall’s Island. 

Mr. Max Niklas, former Deputy Superintendent, of the 
City institutions on Randall’s Island. 

Miss Eleanor A. Johnson, of Visiting Committee of the 
State Charities Aid Association. 

Mr. Franklin B. Kirkbride, Secretary, Letch worth Village. 

Mr. Henry M. Lechtrecker, Inspector, State Charitable In¬ 
stitutions, State Board of Charities. 

Mr. Richard W. Wallace, Superintendent of Inspection, 
State Board of Charities. 

Mrs. Nellie Elmore, mother of Robert St. C. Elmore, a 
feeble-minded boy, who was sent adrift from Randall’s Island. 

Mrs. Mary C. Dunphy, Ex^Superintendent of the City in¬ 
stitutions on Randall’s Island. 

At the New York City Children’s Hospitals and Schools on 
Randall’s Island on June 18, the following witnesses were 
heard: 

Mr. Emil Regnault, Record Clerk at the City institutions 
on Randall’s Island. 

Miss Jane Honey, Trained Nurse of the City institutions 
on Randall’s Island. 

Miss M. I. Barton, Nurse of the City institutions on Ran¬ 
dall’s Island. 

While clearly recognizing the fact that those most familiar with 
conditions at the hospitals and schools on Randall’s Island were di¬ 
vided into camps more or less partisan in their nature, it was the 
purpose of the Committee to listen freely to evidence from all 
sides in order to get all the pertinent facts obtainable. 

Correspondence With the Commissioner of Public 
Charities 

The following correspondence, which was entered upon the rec¬ 
ord of the first hearing, indicates the agreement made with the 
Commissioner of Public Charities with respect to the methods of 
the inquiry: 


18 


“New York, April 9, 1915. 

“Hon. John A. Kingsbury, Commissioner of Public 
Charities, Municipal Building, New York City: 

“ Dear Sir: The State Board of Charities at its own voli¬ 
tion, as well as by direction of the Legislature, desires shortly 
to commence an inquiry into certain features of the work of 
the Department of Public Charities' of this City, of which 
Department you are the head. This will be held by Com¬ 
missioners Stephen Smith, M. D., and J. Kichard Kevin, 
M. D., with the undersigned as Chairman. While this in¬ 
quiry will deal very largely with conditions on Randall’s 
Island, which have been the subject of extended public com¬ 
ment recently, other branches' of the work will also be given 
consideration. The purpose of this inquiry will be purely 
constructive, and it will be our desire to have all the facts 
brought out which have definite and specific relation to that 
subject. 

“ We hope we are right in assuming that you will wish to 
cooperate with the Board in this inquiry, and that you will 
produce the witnesses who are in the service of the Depart¬ 
ment, as well as such documents as may be desired, without 
the necessity for issuing subpoenas for the same. Will you 
please to let me know about this as soon as possible, and also 
advise me as to when you will be ready to have us commence 
the taking of testimony at open public hearings ? 

“ Yours very truly, 

“ (Signed) WILLIAM R. STEWART, 

President.” 


To which the following reply was received: 

“ April 12, 1915. 

“ Hon. William R. Stewart, President, State Board of 
Charities, 287 Fourth Ave., New York City: 

“ Dear Sir: I beg to acknowledge your letter of April 10th. 
I note that the investigation you are about to begin is insti¬ 
tuted as an act of the State Board of Charities, as well as in 
compliance with a certain joint resolution of the Legislature. 

I also note that it is the purpose of your investigation to 
deal not only with the condition on Randall’s Island, but with 
other branches of the work under my jurisdiction. 

I further note your statement that the purpose of the in¬ 
quiry is to be constructive and that it is your desire ‘ to have 
all the facts brought out which have definite and specific rela- 


19 


tions to the subject.’ I interpret this to mean that every¬ 
thing in the way of policy and administrative action since 
the Department was established is relevant to the inquiry. 

You are entirely right in assuming that this Department 
wishes to cooperate with your Board to the fullest possible 
extent in such an inquiry, assuming that the Department will 
he given ample opportunity to present all facts, records and 
other data in the possession of the Department, through the 
assistance of counsel, and have the right to introduce and 
cross-examine witnesses. I would suggest and urge, in fair¬ 
ness’ to the Department, that the Board pursue to its ultimate 
and conclusive end, any single matter, before taking up 
another. I make this suggestion on the advice of the Cor¬ 
poration Counsel, based on his experience in the recent Civil 
Service investigation. In that proceeding great injustice was 
done by the introduction of testimony on a particular sub¬ 
ject, without giving a fair opportunity to answer or explain, 
in this way frequently creating in the minds of the public 
absolutely false impressions. As your inquiry is to be con¬ 
structive, Mr. Polk felt sure there would he no objection on 
your part to this suggestion. 

“ Owing to the absence of Counsel from the City and the 
necessity for adequate time for him to familiarize himself 
with the whole situation in its many and complicated aspects, 
the Department will not be ready to begin the hearing until 
about April 23rd or 24th. 

“ Very sincerely yours, 

“ (Signed) JOHN A. KINGSBURY, 

C ommissioner.” 


The following letter was sent by President Stewart on April 
16, 1915: 

“Hon. John- A. Kingsbury, Commissioner of Public 
Charities, Municipal Building, New York City: 

“Dear Sir: The receipt of your note of the 12th instant 
in regard to the State Bo>ard of Charities inquiry into condi¬ 
tions; on Randall’s Island, and into other branches of the work 
of your Department, is hereby acknowledged. In connection 
therewith, I am pleased to note that your Department wishes 
to cooperate with this Board to the fullest extent possible 
in such an inquiry. With that expression of willingness; you 
couple a conditional assumption that your Department will 
have the privilege of presenting all the facts, records and data 


20 


in its possession, through counsel, and will have the right 
to introduce and cross-examine witnesses. 

“ It had been and is the intention of the inquiry committee 
to permit your Department to appear by counsel (presumably 
the Corporation Counsel of the City of Hew York), and the 
right of appearance necessarily carries with it the right of 
examination and cross-examination. The order, however, in 
which witnesses are to be produced and examined must, to a 
large extent, depend upon the development of the inquiry and 
the judgment of the representative of the Attorney-General 
who will assist in the conduct of the hearings. 

“As you know, these hearings are to be public; and the com¬ 
mittee in charge thereof will be pleased to have you attend 
its sessions. I may add, in view of your statement that 
the Department will not be ready for the hearing until about* 
the 23rd or 24th of this month, that the Committee is quite 
ready to adopt your suggestion in this' regard, and will ac¬ 
cordingly fix its first hearing for one of those days. 

“ May I in conclusion ask a definite and early reply to the 
following questions : 

“ Will you, produce before our Committee persons in your 
employ without the formalities of a subpoena? 

“ Will you produce such documents as the Committee may 
desire, and which are in your possession, without the formalin 
ties of a subpoena? 

“You are doubtless aware that our Committee has the 
right, under Section 13 of the State Charities Law, to compel 
the attendance of witnesses and the production of papers; I 
assume, however, that you will gladly furnish witnesses and 
documents under your control without putting us to the 
necessity of issuing compulsory process. 

“ Very truly yours, 

“ (Signed) WILLIAM R. STEWART, 

“ Chairman.” 


To which the following answer was received: 

“April 19, 1915. 

“ Hon. William E. Stewart, Chairman, State Board of 
Charities, Albany, N. Y.: 

“Dear Sir: I have your letter of the 16th. I shall await 
notice from you of the date of hearing. 

“ In answer to your questions there will be no necessity for 
the issue of subpoenas to require the presence of persons in 
the Department of which I have charge. If you will give me 


21 


reasonable notice of the persons desired, I will order them to 
appear without subpoena. 

“Nor is there any need of the formality of a subpoena for 
the production of documents. All documents to which you 
are entitled will on reasonable notice likewise be produced at 
hearings without subpoena. 

“ Very truly yours, 

“ (Signed) JOHN A. KINGSBURY, 

“ Commissioner ” 

Recapitulation of Charges 

Briefly recapitulated, the principal evils, defects and abuses 
alleged to have existed at the New York City Children’s Hospitals 
and Schools on Randall’s Island, were as follows: 

Brutal and inhuman treatment of inmates, which was said to 
have been permitted by the superintendent; improper restraint 
of inmates; failure to quarantine and segregate inmates; in¬ 
sufficiency of food; failure to bathe inmates and to provide toilet 
supplies; failure to separate the mentally defective from the nor¬ 
mal children; use by employees of the clothing of inmates; failure 
to safeguard inmates from fire; and neglect of duty on the part 
of the watchmen. 

Nature of Testimony Quoted 

The testimony quoted in this report is arranged almost entirely 
with reference to the main divisions of the published complaints, 
as hereinbefore recapitulated, as to the existence of evils, defects 
and abuses at the New York City Children’s Hospitals and 
Schools. While omitting much that was in the nature of hearsay 
testimony without apparently any substantial foundation, and 
also some testimony based upon the alleged conditions and events 
of ten or fifteen years ago, the Committee has endeavored to in¬ 
clude everything that could with propriety be regarded as de¬ 
pendable evidence as to conditions existing during recent years. 

Conditions Evident at the Outset 
At the outset it seemed evident to the Committee that the Com¬ 
missioner of Public Charities had either for a long period been 
cognizant of the existence of grossly improper conditions at the 


22 


City institutions on Randall’s Island and had failed to take meas¬ 
ures looking to their prompt correction, which it would have been 
his obvious duty to do under all the circumstances, or else that the 
public accounts based upon the statements of his representatives, 
had for some reason greatly magnified and distorted the gravity 
of the actual conditions at the institutions. There appeared from 
all the circumstances to be no other alternative possible. 

EXCERPTS FROM THE TESTIMONY TAKEN 

First. The Testimony With Relation to the Alleged 
Brutal and Inhuman Treatment of Inmates 
Deputy Commissioner Wright's Testimony on Pages 12, 13, 14, 
32, 39, 40, 41 and 42. 

Q. How long have you been First Deputy Commissioner? A. 
Since January 7, 1914. 

Q. Have you had any duties with relation to the Island since 
that time? A. Yes. 

Q. What? A. Special charge of the food, medical service, 
feeding, and the division of medicines, and such new construction 
work as was under operation. 

********** 

Q. Have you since your appointment been steadily in charge 
of Randall’s Island, so far as buildings, feeding and medical 
care are concerned ? A. Yes. 

Q. And in connection with that going to Randall’s Island from 
time to time? A. Yes. 

Q. How many times have you been there since your appoint¬ 
ment ? A. I have made no count and I can’t state it to you with 
accuracy. I presume I have been there twenty to thirty times. 

Q. In the course of sixteen or seventeen months ? A. I pre¬ 
sume so. 

********** 

Q. On these twenty or thirty visits you made did you ever see 
any instance of brutal treatment on the part of any of these order¬ 
lies and attendants? A. Ho. 

Q. Did you ever see a case of the infliction of severe corporal 


23 


punishment upon any inmate of the institutions of the department 
on Randall’s Island? A. Ho. 

********** 

Q. I am informed since the suspension of your late superin¬ 
tendent by the way, when was that, about ? A. The fore part 
of March. 

Q. Since that time you have made many visits over there ? A. 
Almost daily for the last three weeks. 

Q. Almost daily ? A. Hot for the fore part of the period; for 
the last three weeks I have been there almost daily. 

Q. Can you say if you had been officially there previous to 
that time, the early part of March, over six times in your official 
capacity ? A. I feel sure I have. 
********* * 

Q. You won’t say you were there more frequently than six or 
eight times. A. I can’t state. 

********** 

Q. In connection with your work in supervising patients on 
the Island did you receive any complaints as to the infliction of 
corporal punishment or the striking of blows or the showering of 
kicks upon inmates ? A. Personally I don’t believe I did. 

Q. Were any such complaints ever turned over to you by any¬ 
body else ? A. The latter part of the year I saw copies of letters. 

Q. That was from inmates, or from relatives and parents ? A. 
Both, but more the latter. 

Q. What did you do about those complaints ? A. These com¬ 
plaints came in comparatively recently. 

Q. Tell us what was done. A. The Superintendent was sus¬ 
pended. 

Q. What investigation was made of the truth or untruth of the 
complaints ? A. The general inspector had been investigating 
for months as to the truth or falsity of such complaints. 

Q. And upon the coming in of his report the Superintendent 
was suspended ? A. Soon thereafter, I think. 

Q. What was the practice upon the coming in of complaints 
from inmates or representatives of the inmates? A. The general 
inspector, Mr. Dinwiddie, was assigned to it. 

Q. He made an inspection of the children and an investigation 
of these complaints? A. Yes, and all other institutions. 


24 


Inspector Dinwiddle's Testimony on Pages 44-47, 50; Also 4—2 

and 11-2. 

Q. You are connected with the Department of Public Chari¬ 
ties of the City of New York, are you not? A. I am. 

Q. In what capacity ? A. Chief Inspector. 

Q. Tell us what your duties are as such general inspector? A. 
My duties are to handle all complaints of the department that are 
referred to me, to make inspections of the various institutions in 
the department, to make visits and to do the work especially as¬ 
signed to me. 

Q. How long have you been connected with the Department? 
A. Since the early part of 1914. 

Q. Have you been engaged in similar work, similar visitorial 
and inspectorial work prior to that time? A. Quite similar. 

Q. Where and when ? A. With the Board of Estimate, the 
Committee on Inquiry on the Department of Health. 

Q. How long were those employments continued ? A. Two 
years. 

Q. For two years prior to your entrance into the charities de¬ 
partment? A. Yes. 

Q. Had you been engaged in similar work before that? A. 
Yes, prior to that I was engaged in work in Bellevue Hospital. 

Q. How long did that work continue? A. Between one and 
two years. 

Q. Did you subsequently to your entering into the Department 
of Charities receive or have turned over to you by the Commis¬ 
sioner or any of his deputies any complaints arising out of the 
care and conduct by the officials of the inmates on Randall’s Is¬ 
land or in connection with any people on that Island ? Did you 
have any complaints as to the infliction of corporal punishment 
or wrongful physical restraint on the inmates at Randall’s Island ? 
A. I received complaints in which the statements were made that 
corporal punishment was inflicted. 

Q. From whom did they come? A. From various people. 

Q. From the inmates themselves or their relatives and friends ? 
A. I don’t remember receiving any from inmates. 

Q. Were those complaints in written form? A. Usually I 
think. 



25 


Q. Are they to be found among the records of your department 
and are they filed there ? A. Yes. 

Q. What did you do upon receiving these complaints ? A. I 
made an investigation. 

Q. Personally? A. Sometimes and sometimes I assigned them 
to people attached to my office. 

Q. Who were those people to whom you sometimes assigned 
these investigations of complaints ? A. Mr. Rice, confidential 
investigator; Miss Aidman, Miss Phillips and Miss Dinwiddie. 

Q. Miss Dinwiddie ? A. Yes. 

Q. When did you first receive these complaints as to corporal 
punishment upon the inmates of the institutions upon Randall’s 
Island ? A. I don’t remember the date of the first complaint. 

Q. I don’t mean the exact date, about ? A. About the middle 
of the year perhaps of 1914. 

Q. Can you tell us of any instance in which you personally 
made investigation of these complaints ? A. I don’t remember 
interviewing any imnates except in the case of Barney Feeney. 

Q. What was that case ? A. The case of an alleged death of a 
patient from beating, it being claimed that death resulted from 
beating. 

Q. In that case was a coroner’s inquest held subsequent to the 
death of the patient ? A. I believe so. 

Q. Have you personal knowledge of the result and outcome of 
that inquest ? A. I have not. 

Q. You made a rather exhaustive report on conditions on Ran¬ 
dall’s Island for your department did you not ? A. It covered a 
number of features. 

Q. That report covered as the first section thereof the care and 
treatment of patients on Randall’s Island, did it not? A. Yes. 

Q. You included in the foreword and summary of conclusions 
findings and recommendations with regard to the care and treat¬ 
ment of patients on Randall’s Island? A. Yes. 

Q. How far was this summary of findings and conclusions and 
how far is the text of this report based upon your personal knowl¬ 
edge of the conditions set forth in it ? A. That is a pretty hard 
question. 

Q. That carries a good many instances of beating, corporal 
punishment, tying to beds, physical restraint ? A. Yes. 


26 


Q. In any of these instances did you personally make the in¬ 
vestigation or see any of the facts set forth? A. I never saw a 
child beaten; I have seen some restraint. 
********** 

Q. In your summary of conclusions you speak of repeated in¬ 
stances of corporal punishment, brutality or inhumane treatment 
of inmates by male and female attendants. Did you personally 
ever see any such instances of brutality or inhumane treatment ? 
A. Not as to brutality. 

Q. Or inhumane treatment ? A. I saw the confinement of 
children. 

Q. When you speak of confinement do you mean restraint by 
tying ? A. Yes. 

Q. Did you at the time of seeing such instances inquire by 
whose order the restraint had been actually made ? A. I did. 

Q. What did you find ? A. At the volition of the attendant. 

Q. Without the order of anybody of any kind of supervisory 
capacity ? A. Yes. 

Q. Did you formulate charges against the orderly or attendant 
who did it without an order contrary to the rule of the depart¬ 
ment, who actually did the tying or restraining? A. Only as 
contained in the report. 

Q. That is only an omnibus indictment and not a complaint at 
all. A. It refers to individuals. I think the whole scope of my 
inquiry is very well covered in my report. 
********** 

Q. In that report, I read from page 77 thereof: “ The files in 
the general administration office of the Department of Public 
Charities show that complaints relative to the mistreatment of 
patients by attendants have been made for the past twelve years.” 
That is a fact, is it not? A. Yes. 

Q. When did you first discover that these complaints were 
made, these twelve years past ? A. That examination of files was 
not made, I think, until October. 

Q. After your period of investigation and personal visits had 
ceased? A. Not entirely. 

Q. Had largely ceased? A. After I had gotten considerable 
headway in my work. 


27 


Q. How many complaints were given to yon personally for 
initial investigation and report? A. Are you predicating all of 
this prior to my investigation ? 

Q. Prior to or subsequent to your investigation. A. I don’t 
know that I can answer that in any degree of accuracy offhand. 
***** ***** 

Q. In your report at page 86, you write as follows: 

u On July 6th the General Inspector, while passing through 
the dormitories and porches of Pavilions A, B and C, found a 
number of inmates on the porches tied to chairs. As many as 
eight were found on one porch. On July 18 the General In¬ 
spector found a half dozen girls tied in the lavatory on the top 
floor of the North Hospital.” Do you remember writing that ? 
A. Yes. 

Q. When you discovered those conditions did you make inquiry 
for the giving of orders for that treatment or restraint? A. I 
did later. 

Q. Did you at that time make inquiry of anybody ? A. I did 
not. 

Q. Were you familiar with this rule at this time? A. I was 
not. 

Commissioner Kinqsburys Testimony on Paqes 87, 88, 89, 90-92, 
98, 107-110, 115, 140-142. 

Q. Mr. Kingsbury, you are the Commissioner of Charities of 
the City of New York? A. I am the Commissioner of Public 
Charities. 

Q. When did you assume the duties of that office ? A. On Jan- 
uary first, 1914. 

Q. And previous to that time had you had any practical ex¬ 
perience in the administration of public charities? A. Not of 
public charities. 

Q. Plad you been at any time connected with any private char¬ 
itable associations ? A. I had. 

Q. What ones ? A. The State Charities Aid Association and 
the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor. 

Q. Prior to entering upon the duties of your office had you 
visited any of the State institutions for the care of the feeble¬ 
minded? A. Yes. 


28 


Q. Which ones? A. Well, several; I don’t recall which ones 
now; I visited a great number of the State institutions. 

Q. For the care of the feeble-minded? A. I visited Rome. I 
don’t know whether I visited any other for the feeble-minded or 
not, I visited State hospitals. I think perhaps that is the only 
one in this State for the feeble-minded I visited. 

Q. About or soon after you entered into public office and had 
appointed Mr. Wright, Mr. Kingsbury, you issued an order in 
regard to the duties of your first deputy and your second deputy 
did you not? A. Very soon thereafter. 

Q. The first I find is the 26th of January in which you charge 
the First Deputy Commissioner with the care of all patients in 
departmental hospitals, and so forth ? A. Yes. 

Q. And in the second order, which modified it or changes it, 
that was issued in April you charged him with the care of all 
patients in departmental hospitals including the direction of all 
purchases, the purchase and acquisition, receipt and consumption 
of all supplies, dietary, medical and surgical, which pertain to 
the welfare of such patients. Did you include in that order the 
departmental hospitals and the population on Randall’s Island? 
A. I think so, I don’t remember. 

Q. Look at it (handing witness paper). A. (Examining pa¬ 
per) Yes, if this is a copy of that order that is undoubtedly meant 
to cover all patients in the department. 

Q. Under this order as I take it about the first duty you charged 
your first deputy with was the care of this population of nearly 
two thousand people on Randall’s Island ? A. Of course that 
was one of the institutions and by charging him with the care of 
it meant he is the one of the deputies who would have charge of 
the general supervision and direction of the work pertaining to 
these matters in each institution. The superintendent of each in¬ 
stitution is held personally responsible for the conduct of the 
institution. 

Q. Your phraseology here says that you charge him with care 
of all patients in Departmental Hospitals. You place the re- 
sponsibility for the care of the patients upon your first deputy, 
do you not ? A. I don’t charge him with the responsibility of the 
details of the care in the institution. 


29 


Q. The general care? A. He represented the Commissioner 
in matters of that kind. 

Q. And you feel, of course, you had the general care on your 
shoulders ? A. I am responsible for the Department. 

Q. And for the first six months of your administration did 
you keep in touch with the manner in which your First Deputy 
was performing the duty of caring for these people on Randalls 
Island? A. I was. 

Q. He testified before us a few days ago that for the first six 
months or eight months he didn’t visit the institution to exceed 
six times. What do you say about the efficiency of an officer 
charged with the care of 2,000 children by you, receiving $5,000 
a year, who doesn’t visit the institution more than six or eight 
times in six months ? A. I think that is about as often as he 
could be expected to in his general supervision of all the insti¬ 
tutions. 

Q. That would satisfy you ? A. He can do very well by work¬ 
ing through the members of the medical staff and through the 
superintendent and staff. 

Q. You evidently were satisfied that your first deputy was giv¬ 
ing to that particular institution all the time that was necessary ? 
A. I am satisfied that he was doing his work. 

Q. That he w T as giving to it all the time necessary? A. Evi¬ 
dently he was giving to it all the time he thought he could give 
considering the needs of the other institutions as well. 

Q. How let us get along nicely together and answer my ques¬ 
tions, did you feel that he was giving to the institution all the 
time necessary ? A. It depends upon what you mean by necessary. 

Q. What you thought was necessary. A. I consider it would 
be a splendid thing if my deputies and I could be in every insti¬ 
tution every day but we cannot. 

Q. I asked you if you thought it was necessary to give more 
time than he did for the first six months ? A. It didn’t occur to 
me that he wasn’t giving as much time as conditions warranted 
at that time. 

Q. I noticed a statement in fhe public press, Mr. Kingsbury, to 
the effect that on one of your visits to Randall’s Island you saw 
one of the children beaten or otherwise cruelly treated ? Is that 
correct ? A. That isn’t a correct statement. 


30 


Q. What is the correct statement ? A. I was in the wards one 
night with the second deputy commissioner and I saw an at¬ 
tendant getting the boys up as they do in the middle of the night 
and I observed as he went past the boys and shook them to wake 
them that one boy after another threw up his hands and said, 
“ Don’t hit me.” I noticed as I went through the rows of beds 
where the children were they would throw up their hands and say, 
“ Don’t hit me,” and they did it as he went through and that was 
an indication that the boys were apparently struck. 

Q. You saw no actual striking? A. I saw him jerk the boys 
out of bed before they were entirely awake. I saw him slap one 
boy, but not seriously. 

Q. Can you give me about the date when that was, Mr. Com¬ 
missioner ? A. I can’t come near enough for that. I don’t know 
when it was; I should think prior to the 1st of May last year. 

Q. Well, did he know you were the Commissioner? A. No; 
I don’t believe he did. 

Q. What salary did this man get? A. I don’t know. 

Q. Did you say anything to him? A. No; I didn’t want to dis¬ 
close my identity. 

Q. If he had used cruel treatment in your presence or you had 
good reason to believe he did he should have been discharged? 
A. Yes. 

Q. Did you do anything to have that man discharged ? A. Not 
that particular man. 

Q. Do you know how long he continued in employment after 
that? A. No. 

********* * 

Q. November 30th I think. Now the facts as to brutal and 
inhuman treatment as set forth in that report were all witnessed 
in the summer of a year ago, nearly a half year period before the 
date of that report. Was anything done by you between the dates 
of these so-called instances of brutality and inhuman treatment 
and the preferment of charges against Mrs. Dunphy to correct 
these abuses ? A. None were proven up to that time. There were 
indications of abuse and it took some time to get it in shape and 
I waited for some time to get the entire report. 

Q. In what particular instances were reports brought to you 
of so-called brutality and inhuman treatment of inmates? A. 


31 


This report was brought to me giving the conditions there generally 
and as to proofs I took the Corporation Counsel’s word for that 
as to whether the proofs were adequate. 

Q. Were there any removals based upon this report of brutal 
and inhuman treatments by orderlies ? A. There have been some 
very serious strenuous attempts to effect some removals. 

Q. Of the people on Randall’s Island who were brutal to the 
inmates ? A. I decided on that report which seemed to indicate 
to me that there was a very serious situation with reference to the 
treatment of children to take it up with the Corporation Counsel 
and the matter was taken up with the Corporation Counsel 
and his advice was sought and it was decided that the thing to 
do was to prefer charges against the superintendent, who was 
responsible along the lines reported upon. 

Q. Was the matter of that report taken up with the superin¬ 
tendent after November 30, after it came in to you? A. No; it 
was examined by the Corporation Counsel. 

Q. You took it up with the Corporation Counsel before taking 
it up with the superintendent ? A. I did. 

Q. Did you request the superintendent to take present and 
immediate steps to remedy the abuses pointed out in this report? 
A. I determined upon advice to remove the superintendent who 
was responsible for these conditions. 

Q. When did you reach that determination? A. Sometime 
about the first of the year I presume. 

Q. Did you mean to predicate that removal upon the preferment 
of charges and a hearing had ? A. The superintendent was given 
a summary of that report and it would depend upon her action 
upon that report. 

Q. You meant to predicate her removal upon that report ? A. 
I meant to say, I determined to get rid of the superintendent. 

Q. What do you mean? A. To take any steps necessary. 

Q. How could she he separated from the service according to 
the advice of the Corporation Counsel ? A. By preferring charges. 

Q. That report came in to you on November 30th? A. It was 
dated November 30th. 

Q. Do you know when you finally preferred charges against 
Mrs. Dunphy? A. About the first of March I should think. 

Q. It took you all of three months to formulate charges based 


32 


upon this report ? A. I examined the reports a week or ten days. 
I was being investigated by the State Civil Service Commission 
and was in attendance upon hearings of this kind and could not 
attend to everything. It took some time to look it over, I don’t 
know how long. 

Q. Between the date of the coming in of this report and the 
study by yourself and the preferment of charges against Mrs. 
Dunphy of March first of this year, what, if anything was done 
by yourself to check these abuses and correct these evils? A. 
Nothing was done; the responsibility was still on the superin¬ 
tendent. 

Q. So far as you were concerned, so far as you were personally 
concerned, these abuses were left to continue unchecked until you 
could do something to get rid of Mrs. Dunphy? A. Yes, the 
responsibility was still with the superintendent. 
********* 

Q. Are you conversant with the specifications of charges pre¬ 
ferred against Mrs. Dunphy? A. I was two months ago when 
they were preferred. 

Q. Is this a copy of those charges (handing witness paper) ? 
A. (Examining paper) It looks like it. 

Q. Of your own personal knowledge you know nothing of any 
cases of cruel or inhuman treatment ? A. Not that I have seen, no. 
******** ** 

Q. In a number of New York papers under date of March 7th 
last, appeared a statement in quotation marks as coming in words 
from yourself, that you had seen an attendant strike one of the 
children on the Island on the occasion of a visit there by yourself 
in the latter part of April or the first part of May, 1914, and 
that you had stopped an attendant from beating a child. Is that 
correct? A. No, that is not correct. I gave out no statement 
like that. 

Q. So if the “ Brooklyn Daily Eagle ” so quoted you and the 
“ New York Press ” so quoted you, and the “ New York Sun,” so 
quoted you, of date of March 7, they are not correct but are 
erroneous ? A. If they are as you state them, they are not correct. 

Q. Will you be good enough to look at these seriatim, (handing 
witness newspaper clipping reading as follows) : 

“ In April or May last year I visited the hospital and schools 


33 


one evening with William J. Doherty, my second deputy/’ said 
the Commissioner yesterday. “ We heard screams of feeble¬ 
minded inmates. Turning around we saw an attendant strike one 
of the children. I stopped him from continuing the beating. 
Charges were not preferred against him, but I understand he wa& 
dismissed.”) 

A. (Examining clipping) As I say, there is just as much 
basis for that as contained in the statement which I gave last 
week to the effect that at the time the attendant was getting the 
children up at the middle of the night and as they did that, as 
the boys were awakened one after another, they threw up their 
arms to protect themselves and said “ Don’t strike me, don’t hit 
me,” and similarly, as we passed by the beds and they were 
awakened they made similar cries of “ Don’t strike me ” and we 
saw the attendants pulling them out of bed and it showed their 
attitude and that is one of the differences between the kind of 
institution we should have and the kind we did have. In one 
case the man at the end of the ward slapped a patient, but not in 
a way that was serious at all; that, altogether were indications, 
such as the children flinging up their hands, which led us to 
believe that the children did not receive proper care. 

Q. So far as actual striking was concerned you didn’t witness 
any nor did you stop anybody? A. No, we didn’t stop anybody 
from striking. 

Dr. Boohs testimony on pages 129, 129!/£, 131 and 133. 

Q. How long have you been a physician and surgeon? A. 
Since June 6, 1912. 

Q. How long have you been at Randall’s Island? A. Since 
August 1, 1914. 

******** ** 

Q. Do you devote all your time to Randall’s Island? A. Yes. 

Q. Are you there every day ? A. Every day. 
********** 

Q. Have you noticed that in the cases of these idiotic children 
some restraint in bed or in chairs is necessary to keep them from 
injuring themselves or others ? A. It is. 

Q. And that is required to be done? A. With the facilities at 
Randall’s Island it is necessary. 

2 


34 


Q. To restrain these children? A. Yes. It is only the very 
lowest grade children that are restrained. I don’t believe I know 
of a case of a higher grade child that has been put in restraint. 

Q. During the time you have been there have you ever seen the 
body of a child that had any evidence upon it of having been beaten 
or bruised by attendants? A. No; I was called to investigate two 
cases of bruises, one bruise on the face, and I couldn’t ascertain 
how it had been obtained and in the other case there was no 
sign of a bruise. 

Q. These were in the case of complaints that had been made? 
A. Yes. 

Q. Have you had an opportunity to notice the service rendered 
by the cheap class of helpers ? A. Yes. 

Q. Do any of this class come in contact with the children ? 
A. They take them back and forth from the wards to the gym¬ 
nasium and playgrounds and take care of them in the wards. 

Q. So they do come in personal contact with the children ? A. 
In that respect, and giving baths. 

Q. In that class of help you have a great many changes, don’t 
you? A. Yes, quite a few. 

Q. Have you ever seen or known of any cruelty being practiced 
upon these children or any of these children during the time you 
were there? A. Ho. 

Inspector Ford's testimony on pages 177 and 178. 

Q. What else did you look into ? A. The matter of the need for 
additional attendants assigned to duty in the Reception Hospital. 

Q. Had a prior report shown that number to be inadequate? 
A. It so stated. 

Q. What ? A. That additional attendants were needed. 

Q. What did you find? A. That an additional orderly had 
been assigned to the Reception Hospital. 

Q. Did you feel qualified to pass upon what should be a com¬ 
petent number in that reception house? A. No, sir. 

Q. You simply reported there had been an increase of one? 
A. Yes. 

Q. When you examined the inmates to see if they were properly 
shod did you have occasion to notice them so far as to see if they 


35 


were bruised, if they had bruises on their hands or heads? A. 
I did. 

Q. Did any show signs of being manhandled or inhumanely 
treated? A. No. 

Inspector Park's testimony on pages 185 and 186. 

Q. What was the particular occasion of your visit in Septem¬ 
ber, 1914? A. I was instructed to investigate a complaint of 
cruelty practiced on one of the inmates of the feeble-minded 
division. 

Q. Do you remember the name of the inmate ? A. No. 

Q. What was the specific nature of the alleged inhumane treat¬ 
ment ? A. There were two charges, the first that the inmate had 
been tied to a bedpost in such a manner that the bandages or other 
cords had cut into his hands and skin so he had developed a skin 
disease which had been neglected. 

Q. How did this complaint come to you for inspection ? A. 
By the instructions of the Superintendent of State and Alien 
Poor. 

Q. Is that a subordinate employee of the State Board of Chari¬ 
ties ? A. He is in charge of one Department of the State Board 
of Charities. 

Q. You don’t know how the complaint had come to him in the 
first instance? A. Yes; I was in the office receiving instructions 
about some other work when the matter came in and he asked me 
to go and investigate it. 

Q. With what result? A. The first charge of cruelty was not 
substantiated. There were no marks on the wrists and ankles of 
the child and no marks on the hands. 

Q. Was the child tied? A. The child was tied. 

Q. Pursuant to order ? A. Pursuant to order. 

Q. And it was to prevent the child from inflicting self damage ? 
A. Yes. 

Dr. Schlapp’s testimony on pages 205, 206 and 207. 

Q. Did you go through all the wards and buildings given over 
to atypical cases ? A. Yes; I didn’t go through every ward every 
day I went there but made rounds in the principal places and in- 


36 


quired from the internes if there was anything special and if there 
was I took it up, I took up the matter that required attention of a 
member of the Board. 1 spent anywhere from one to four hours 
or longer from the time I went there. 

Q. Did you have occasion when you visited these wards and 
buildings to note the physical condition of the children ? A. Yes. 

Q. Did you see any instances of cruel and inhumane treat¬ 
ment towards any inmates? A. I did not. 

Q. Did you see any cases of restraint or the physical tying of 
patients where no orders had been given ? A. I did not. 

Q. Do you know that orders are ever given that epileptic chil¬ 
dren and other similar children are restrained to prevent them 
from giving themselves harm? A. Yes, and injuring others. 

Q. Have you personally given such orders? A. Yes; in one or 
two instances. 

Q. Did you see any cases where in violation of or without 
orders such restraint was had? A. Ho sir, I didn’t. 

Q. Would you have noticed any physical evidence of brutal 
treatment or beatings in the way of marks upon faces and bodies 
of patients? A. Well of course when the children have their 
clothes on you wouldn’t notice any on their bodies, or they might 
fall and injure themselves or somebody might have struck them 
and you couldn’t see them. I never observed any. 

Q. Were any complaints ever made to you by inmates of 
brutal treatment, of brutal or inhumane treatment that you recall ? 
A. Yes; and I always endeavored to investigate and report to 
Mrs. Dunphy; they were always investigated. I remember one 
rather serious type of complaint if you would like to have me 
bring it out to show these complaints are very often brought up. 
I was over to the Island one day and two of the high grade feeble¬ 
minded boys came to me and stated that an orderly had misused 
one of the other boys; I mean sexually; I immediately reported 
this to Mrs. Dunphy and an investigation was started and these 
two boys named other children who were supposed to have been 
witnesses of this matter. We called the boys who were named as 
witnesses each one alone in a room and after careful questioning 
they admitted that these two older boys said to them that if they 
didn’t say they had seen this act by the orderly they would get a 


37 


licking from the older hoys; the older boys were then questioned 
and they admitted they got up this story in order to have the 
orderly discharged, because he was too strict with them. These 
were two high grade boys, individuals who were delinquent, a most 
serious type of individual to care for. This shows how these in¬ 
dividuals will tell lies to get their own way. On several other occa¬ 
sions complaints had come in and they were investigated and it was 
found on investigation that the charges made against the inmates 
were not founded on facts and there was no reason for believing 
them. Sometimes one child would strike another or scratch 
another and then the parents would complain about it either to 
Mrs. Dunphy or to one of the doctors and I have myself received 
a number of letters in which these complaints were brought up 
and I had these cases investigated and there was no reason for 
feeling the children were abused and things occurred that were 
liable to occur in their own homes. 

Dr. Cornwell’s testimony on pages 223 and 224. 

Q. During your connection with the Atypical Board on how 
many occasions did you visit the Island? A. I went there regu¬ 
larly once a week every Tuesday morning with the exception of 
the summer season. 

Q. On the occasion of each visit did you go through all the 
buildings in which the atypical cases were treated ? A. Ho. 

Q. How many did you visit ? A. One-half to three-quarters. 

Q. Did you on the occasion of any of your visits discover any 
signs of brutal or inhumane treatment of the inmates ? A. I have 
frequently seen in wards where the low grade epileptic were in¬ 
juries apparently sustained from falling. I couldn’t say whether 
that might not have been sustained by a blow but I have seen no 
injuries as far as I can recall in any except the epileptic. 

Q. When you saw physical signs of bruises did you make in¬ 
quiries as to the causes ? A. Invariably. 

Q. Of whom ? A. Of the orderly in charge. 

Q. Do you recall what answers were given as a rule ? A. Yes, 
I have always been told the circumstances of the injury. 

Q. Were any of these answers indicative of cruel treatment or 
striking? A. Hever; I can recall only one cases where an injury 
was received from another inmate. That was early in this year 
in which I noticed a patient who was very badly scratched ap- 


38 


parently about the face and upon investigation I found he had 
been attacked by another feeble-minded epileptic that same morn¬ 
ing. 

Dr. Brundages testimony on pages 234 and 235. 

Q. Did you come in contact with the atypical cases or just 
those requiring medical treatment ? A. All. 

Q. Do they all require medical treatment ? A. No. 

Q. And you were brought into contact with many of them every 
day of the week? A. Yes. 

Q. Did you at any time during your term of eighteen months 
see any evidence of brutal or inhumane treatment by those who 
had personal care of them ? A. I saw cases of alleged inhumane 
treatment, cases were reported to us as being brutally treated. 

Q. Did you have opportunities to observe their treatment at 
the hands of orderlies and nurses ? A. Yes. 

Q. By whom were these reports made ? A. By parents. 

Q. Were you detailed to investigate these cases ? A. We always 
investigated them. 

Q. Did you verify any of these charges of inhumanity or 
brutality ? A. We never verified one; they were all found to be 
false; they were all found to be the product of disordered imag¬ 
inations or mental disease. 

Q. Did you have occasion to order the physical restraint of any 
of the inmates from time to time? A. Yes. 

Q. What was the object of that physical restraint ? A. To pro¬ 
tect themselves and to protect the other inmates. 

Q. What form did your orders take ? Or were they given orally 
to nurses and attendants ? A, Some were orally to the nurses and 
attendants. 

Q. Did you ever run against cases who were so restrained 
without the order of yourself or the other physicians ? A. Never. 

Dr. Bisch’s testimony on page 241. 

Q. Did you on the occasion of these visits to the Island see 
most of these atypical cases ? A. I think so. 

Q. You would have noticed it if their physical condition had 
been such as to denote brutal or inhumane treatment? A. Yes. 


39 


Q. Did you ever see any evidence of their having been brutally 
or inhumanely treated, beaten or manhandled? A. Never. 

Q. Did you see cases of restraint of inmates, inmates tied by 
straps to bed or chair ? A. In some of the lowest grade wards I 
saw that occasionally but apparently rarely, considering the type 
of service and I invariably made an inquiry as to why it had been 
done. 

Q. Did you find this tying or this restraining was done subse¬ 
quent to the receipt or pursuant to orders given by the physicians ? 
A. Yes. 

Q. And the object was to prevent the inmate from hurting 
itself if it was an epileptic in convulsive or similar attacks? A. 
Not necessarily during attacks at all; many of these inmates are 
excitable and they have episodes of more excitement and they must 
be restrained. 

Dr. Myers testimony on pages 248 and 249. 

Q. On the occasion of these visits did you have occasion to see 
many of the inmates? A. Yes. 

Q. On the occasion of any of these calls on the Island did you see 
any signs of brutal or inhumane treatment having been admin¬ 
istered to inmates ? A. I saw a case of a fracture to an arm in 
the case of a boy, a crippled boy, also an idiot, and he fell and 
injured himself. 

Q. You saw various cases of physical restraint on the cases of 
your visits to the Island ? A. I saw many people, some supported 
by binders on account of disease and I saw cases of idiots, excitable 
types who were laced in jackets without arms, so as not to interfere 
with the other children and other cases who had skin disease and 
had to be kept from constantly picking their faces and also cases 
where they had filthy habits. 

Q. Such restraint was had with or without the orders of phy¬ 
sicians or nurses ? A. With the orders of the physicians because 
I made inquiries why always. 

Q. Did you find any cases of restraint made without authoriza¬ 
tion of the proper order? A. No. 


40 


Dr. Stechmanns testimony on pages 253 and 254. 

Q. Did you on the occasion of your visits go through the wards, 
all the wards and note their physical condition ? A. I did. 

Q. Did you on any of these visits see any evidence of brutal 
and inhuman treatment as shown by physical marks ? A. I never 
did, no, sir. 

Q. Did you see any children in physical restraint by reason of 
being tied to beds or chairs ? A. Occasionally. 

Q. Did you know whether it was by the doctor’s orders or 
inflicted by way of punishment? A. That was ordered. 

Q. Why ? A. Some atypical children if left alone will commit 
obscene acts and to prevent that we have to tie their hands; other¬ 
wise they would do injury to the other children; some would do 
injury to themselves and some to others. 

Q. When you saw inmates who were so restrained did you make 
inquiry as to the cause? A. Always. 

Q. Did you find it was in every instance pursuant to orders? 
A. I did. 

Q. Did you run across any cases where inmates were inflicted 
with restraint, tied up, without orders of doctors or nurses? A. 
I never did. 

Father Jansen's testimony on pages 259 and 260. 

Q. Did you at any time during your six years’ activity on the 
Island receive any complaints as to cruel or brutal treatment of 
the inmates? A. I received one letter and I myself investigated 
it but found it false and I didn’t do anything. 

Q. How long ago was that instance? A. Perhaps two and a 
half years ago. 

Q. What was the nature of the charge made in that communica¬ 
tion? A. In the letter I was told that the child was probably 
beaten and that there were marks but I saw the child and judged 
that it was untrue. Of course I had my judgment about these 
things. 

Q. What do you mean by your judgment about these things ? 
A. I had to do something, it was a duty and it was a bad one to 
judge by appearances and so I should think I should not rely upon 
what they said; so I spoke to the nurse and I know the nurse and 


41 


she told me there was no truth in it and I found often that 
parents who came to see the patients endeavored to make them 
say that the treatment was bad. They would for instance various 
times say, “ Do you like that ward ? ” and the girl would say, 
“ Yes, I like that ward,” and the mother continued to question, 
“ Do you like it on the Island ? ” “Yes,” said the girl. “ Ho, 
you don’t,” said the mother, and so from this I had my opinion 
that the mother wanted the child to say it was not treated well. 
I could plainly hear that from the mother’s questions and the 
answers made. 

Acting Superintendent Flick's testimony on pages 266, 268, 277 

and 278. 

Q. Did you institute any inquiry when you came to the Island, 
or subsequent thereto, as to the physical treatment of inmates by 
orderlies and attendants in the various wards and pavilions ? A. 
You mean if I did that after March 8, 1915 ? 

Q. Yes. A. Yes, I tried to find out if the inmates were well 
treated ? 

Q. How? A. By inquiry and personal visits. 

Q. As the result of this inquiry did you understand that the 
inmates were satisfied with their treatment at the hands of the 
orderlies and attendants ? A. I had three complaints. 

Q. Out of how many inmates on the Island? A. 2049. 

Q. Out of 2049 inmates you had three complaints; is that the 
total number you received? A. Ho; I received five hut two were 
without foundation. 

Q. Did you investigate these complaints upon receiving them ? 
A. Yes, sir. 

Q. What did you find out of these five cases received? A. 
Three were justified. 

Q. What were those complaints if you can recall the facts of 
the individual patients? A. An orderly was seen by a nurse 
kicking an inmate and the nurse reported it and the orderly was 
dismissed. 

Q. What else? A. An attendant was seen heating a crippled 
child and he was instantly dismissed. The truant case I can’t 
just now tell you. 

Q. Did investigation show that the complaints were justifiable? 

A. Yes. 


42 


Q. In all three cases you dismissed the orderlies or attendants ? 
A. Yes. 

Q. What were the dates of these dismissals? A. I can’t tell 
you. 

Q. How soon after you came was that, not exactly, the ap¬ 
proximate date? A, I think in the first month. 

Q. Since that time you have had no further complaints at all ? 
A. Yes; I had complaints, two complaints but without founda¬ 
tion. 

Q. These complaints you investigated and found without 
foundation ? A. Yes. 

Q. How soon after your investigation in the three cases did you 
dismiss the attendants or orderlies ? A. Immediately, as soon 
as I knew he was guilty. 

Q. You still continue making your rounds on the Island to see 
after the general needs and treatment of the inmates? A. As 
much as I can. 

Q. And no further complaints except these five instances have 
been sent to you of any kind of brutal or mistreatment of the 
inmates ? A. Ho. 

Q. Since you have come to the Island have any of the inmates 
made complaints of such treatment prior to your coming to the 
Island? A. Ho. 

Q. So you have no complaint except in these five instances in 
two of which there was no foundation for them after inquiry ? A. 
Ho, sir. 

********** 

Q. Do you have occasion to go through the wards during the 
night hours very late at night? A. Yes. 

Q. Do you see children whose physical wants are attended to in 
the night? A. At all hours. 

Q. Did you on the occasion of any of these visits see these 
children when they required attendance act in a way to betoken 
fear of the attendants, orderlies and attendants? A. Ho. 

Q. Did you ever see any of these inmates on these occasions 
lift or raise their arms as if to ward off any possible prospective 
blows? A. They will do it at times anyway in the lower idiots, 
they will do that. 

Q. And that is the result of their condition mentally ? A. Yes. 


43 


Confidential Inspector Rices testimony on pages 278 and 279. 

Q. You are connected with the Department of Public Charities 
of the City of Yew York? A. I am. 

Q. In what capacity ? A. Confidential inspector. 

Q. How long have you been occupied in that position ? A. Since 
the early part of April, 1914. 

Q. Had you done any similar work for any public department 
elsewhere before that time ? A. I had not. 

Q. Had you been connected with the public service anywhere 
prior to that date? A. Yes, Seattle, Washington, I beg your 
pardon, Olympia, Washington. 

Q. In what capacity ? A. As secretary of the Industrial Wel¬ 
fare Commission of the State of Washington. 

Q. How long had you been secretary of that Commission ? A. 
Between four and five months. 

Q. What were your duties as secretary of the Industrial Wel¬ 
fare Commission ? A. The duties were to gather statistics re¬ 
lating to wages and conditions of labor of women and minors in 
the State and interpret those statistics, arrange public hearings 
and such other secretarial duties as would ordinarily attach to 
such a position. 

Q. Did you come directly from that employment to the employ 
of the City Charities here? A. Yo sir. 

Q. Were you engaged in similar work? A. There was an in¬ 
terim of approximately two months before I came to Yew York 
City after I left the service of the Industrial Welfare Commission. 

Q. Are you a civil service employee? A. Yo sir, my position 
is confidential, the Commissioner appointed me. 

Q. Have you ever been in the public service except in these 
two positions? A. Except minor positions such as an election 
official. Q. When did you enter the service of the City Charities 
Department here? A. In the early part of April, 1914. I am 
unable to give you the exact date. 

Q. What work did you do upon entering the city service? A. 
Any special work. I was assigned by Commissioner Kingsbury 
to investigate the agencies dealing with homeless men from the 
standpoint of one of the men themselves to see what the homeless 


44 


were confronted with and considered from an intimate standpoint. 

Q. How long did you continue in that work ? A. I have done 
work of that kind intermittently since that time. This first ap¬ 
pointment lasted I should judge something under a month. 

Q. When were you assigned, if at all, to make an investigation 
of conditions on Randall’s Island? A. During the month of 
June, 1914. 

Q. Who made that assignment ? A. As I recall the circum¬ 
stances Commissioner Kingsbury directed me to take orders from 
the General Inspector of the Department, Mr. Dinwiddie, who 
assigned me directly to that task. 

Q. Did you have any talk with Commissioner Kingsbury be¬ 
fore your assignment at the hands of General Inspector Din¬ 
widdie? A. I don’t recall any conversation. 

Q. Did you in any conversation with Commissioner Kingsbury 
or General Inspector Dinwiddie gather the information that the 
Department was dissatisfied with conditions on Randall’s Island ? 
A. I understood from both Commissioner Kingsbury and Mr. 
Dinwiddie that a great deal of complaint was being received in 
regard to conditions there. I don’t recall specific conversations. 
I presume they told me they were unsatisfactory. 

Q. Isn’t it true you were told to see what basis there was for 
these complaints ? A. I was told to seek employment on Ran¬ 
dall’s Island and see from my experience there what the situation 
appeared to be so far as I was able. 

Q. Did you know at the time that dissatisfaction was felt by 
the Departmental authorities with and against the Superintendent 
of Randall’s Island? A. Hot otherwise than as I have told you. 

Q. Tell us just what you did in the way of procuring employ¬ 
ment on Randall’s Island in order to make an investigation first 
hand of conditions there? A. During my time of first appoint¬ 
ment I had visited Randall’s Island with other men sent out from 
the Municipal Lodging House where I was then staying and had 
worked there on what is known as the stone yard gang for two 
days and in that time had made the acquaintance with Mr. Down¬ 
ing the orderly in charge of the male help dormitory on Randall’s 
Island who frequently secures men. Upon securing instructions 
from Mr. Dinwiddie, I wrote to Mr. Downing asking for a posi- 


45 


tion. He asked me to come to the Island towards the end of the 
month and see him which I did. He kept me there and referred me 
to Mr. Niklas then Deputy Superintendent. I was then as¬ 
signed to work that same evening. 

Q. What work was given you ? A. I was placed with another 
man as night orderly in ward one. 

Q. That was your first experience? A. Yes at this time. Two 
days before I had been on one of the other wards. 

Q. What were the dates on which you first worked as an orderly ? 
A. I can’t tell you the first two days; June 29 was the second 
time. 

Q. What were you paid? A. I was told nothing definite in 
regard to pay hut I understood I would follow the same process 
as the other orderlies being on the unpaid list until a vacancy 
occurred when I could be placed on the paid list. 

Q. What were your duties as orderly ? A. I was given no in¬ 
structions as to my duties but gathered from other employees the 
general situation. I was to care for the patients at night in the 
wards. 

Q. That started on June 29, 1914? A. Yes. 

Q. And how long did it continue? A. Until August 15. 

Q. In all that period you were steadily employed on Randall’s 
Island? A. Yes. 

Q. Did you receive any pay for your work as such orderly ? A. 
I learned I was placed on the payroll towards the end of July; I 
don’t know what date. I never received any money. 

Q. You were at all these times under salary as confidential in¬ 
spector of the department? A. Yes. 

Q. What was that salary? A. $125 a month. 

Q. Is that your present salary. A. Yes sir. 

Q. Outside of that salary you never received any money for 
that work on Randall’s Island? A. Ho. 

Q. Did you continue steadily as orderly from June 29th to 
August 15th? A. As orderly and night watchman; there was no 
demarcation between them. 

Q. Were you night watchman inside the wards in the pavilion 
buildings or outside ? A. There are three, one inside the warda 
and the other two cover the outside buildings. 


46 


Q. From the period of June 29 to August 15, 1914 how much 
time was spent by you as orderly inside of the wards or various 
pavilions? A. I should judge offhand between two and three 
weeks. 

Q. Now during that period of service as orderly did you have 
full opportunity to see the treatment of the inmates by these 
orderlies and their handling of them ? A. I had considerable. 

Q. Did you ever observe instances of cruel or brutal or inhu¬ 
mane treatment of the inmates by these orderlies or attendants? 
A. I did. There are a number of instances recorded in this 
report. 

Q. Can you by looking over these refresh your memory at all as 
to these instances ?' A. I can read them if you like ? 

Q. No; we want them in your own words. A. On May 3, the 
night of the date I was assigned to Ward F-2, there were twelve 
boys who slept in that ward remaining in the daytime in another 
ward, brought to that ward in which I was assigned each evening 
by the other orderly. After he had brought these boys to Ward 
F-2 the orderly who had brought these boys ran nearly the length 
of the ward and struck a boy over the head with his fist in such a 
way as nearly to throw him from the bed to the floor. 

Q. Did you say anything to him ? A. I don’t think I did. 

Q. You didn’t attempt to suggest to him that he ought not to 
do it? A. No. 

Q. Did you make a complaint ? A. I didn’t. 

Q. Or report this occurrence to the superintendent in charge 
of the Island ? A. No. 

Q. What was the orderly’s name ? A. Richard Mansfield. 

Q. In the absence of such a complaint being made to the super¬ 
intendent howl could the superintendent have been made aware of 
such an improper act on the part of the orderly ? A. I don’t know. 

Q. Didn t you know there was an order of the Department in 
effect at that time forbidding corporal punishment? A. There 
was an order in effect forbidding corporal punishment. 

Q. It didn’t occur to you to tell your fellow employee that it 
was against this order? A. I didn’t think it incumbent upon me. 

Q. If you were an orderly on the Island didn’t you think it was 


47 


an act of proper conduct to make a report to the superintendent 
of such an occurrence ? A. I thought I was merely a witness or in¬ 
vestigator of what conditions were. 

Q. You were not there to correct any wrong doing or to bring 
any act in violation of the rules to the attention of the superin¬ 
tendent but just to make a report? A. Certainly. 

Q. Give us any further instances in which you saw cruel and 
inhumane treatment. What was the name of the child that was 
struck ? A. I don’t know the child. 

Q. Could you identify the child? A. Probably not at this 
time. 

Q. What kind of a child was it ? A. A boy perhaps from 
fourteen to sixteen years of age of the higher grade of feeble- 
minded. 

Q. How did the child act when struck ? A. Merely cowed. 

Q. Do you know if the orderly is still employed at the Island 
or not ? A. As I recall, he has left since that time. I don’t know 
the date. Another orderly in dormitory 2 the second floor a few 
nights after I saw strike a boy three times over the head. 

Q. Did you make , any attempt to ask that the orderly refrain 
from doing anything of that kind? A. Ho. 

Q. You still knew it was a violation of the rules? A. Yes. 

Q. You made no report of it to the superintendent of the 
Island ? A. Ho. 

Q. Didn’t you think it a part of your duty in case you saw 
repeated infractions of the rules to make reports of such occur¬ 
rences to someone in authority ? A. I regarded myself as an in¬ 
spector on the Island and not an orderly. 

Q. As a matter of fact you were an orderly at that time as well 
as an inspector ? A. I was an orderly on the Island but I didn’t 
consider it incumbent upon me to make a report to the superin¬ 
tendent. 

Q. What was the provocation for the orderly striking the child ? 
A. I don’t recall. In most cases there was very little if any. 

Q. Did you make a note of the name of the orderly ? A. The 
orderly in this case was Orderly Prank Williams. 

Q. If you wanted to make a specific case I should think you 


48 


would make it complete, not only stating the occurrence but what 
the hoy did to make him strike him. 

A. These are only instances of the general conditions as I found 
them on the Island. I witnessed many similar occurrences. There 
was nothing especially important to these cases as I saw them 
because they were so frequent. 

Q. In the report made by the General Inspector of your De¬ 
partment, Mr. Dinwiddie, he quotes you as stating that an orderly 
struck one of the hoys in Pavilion F-2 and announced that he 
would knock hell out of them if they didn’t quit. Were you 
present? A. Yes sir. 

Q. What was his name ? A. Richard Mansfield. 

Q. Did he give you any instructions or suggestions as to strik¬ 
ing hoys ? A. Yes sir. 

Q. He told you to hit the boys? A. Yes; I don’t recall his 
exact words, the exact statements which he made at that time. 

Q. Look at your report on page 69 at the bottom of that page. 
A. Yes, he instructed me on that occasion to hit the boys with my 
hands so I would leave no marks upon them. 

Q. Did you hit any hoys pursuant to those instructions? A. 
Ho sir. 

Q. Did you tell him anything as to your willingness or unwill¬ 
ingness to hit them ? A. I believe not. 

Q. These are two instances on which you have testified you saw 
this treatment accorded to inmates. Were there any other such 
instances? A. Yes sir; in the male help dormitory there are a 
number of higher grade feeble minded hoys assigned to help in 
the dining room and kitchen. I saw one inmate frequently kicked 
and struck by other inmates without interference from the orderly 
in charge of this dining room and on several instances saw these 
inmates struck by this orderly. 

Q. Were you in this dining room on those occasions ? A. Yes. 

Q. You didn’t interfere? A. I didn’t. 

Q. Wasn’t it as much your duty as a fellow orderly to inter¬ 
fere? A. I was merely eating my luncheon. 

Q. So if you had seen one of these inmates beat the other in¬ 
mates you wouldn’t interfere if you saw it ? A. Ho; it wasn’t my 
duty. 


49 


Q. And you saw this occasion? A. Yes. It was nothing 
serious. 

Q. Did you ever make a, statement that the attitude of the 
boys at the time of changing bed at night was such as to indicate 
terrorism and fear of attendants by reason of their raising their 
hands over their heads and saying, Don’t hit me ? A. Yes. 

Q. You heard Mr. Flick’s testimony? A. A part of it. 

Q. Did you hear Mr. Flick state that they would do that any¬ 
way as a result of their condition? A. I didn’t; I wasn’t here. 

Q. These hoys who threw up their hands were not however 
struck, were they ? A. FTot by me. 

Q. Were they by anybody on these occasions? A. What page 
are you referring to? 

Q. Page 70, in which it is stated that the attitude of the hoys 
indicated previous brutality because they ducked and dodged 
whenever Mr. Rice came near them as if they expected a blow. 
A. That was true. 

Q. That was no proof they had been mistreated? A. I con¬ 
sidered it proof to my own satisfaction because after I had been 
in that ward a couple of nights or more that attitude of the hoys 
distinctly changed so they no longer did that. 

Q. They did dodge and duck when you came near them the 
first few nights ? A. Yes. 

Q. That indicated to you that they were afraid of you on these 
occasions? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Give us any further statement you saw of actual brutal 
treatment of improper corporal punishment of these inmates? 
A. I might give as an instance although I didn’t witness it — 

Q. Only such instances as you know. A. I heard frequently 
night after night from the door of one building when I was act¬ 
ing as night watchman blows given to the children on the south 
hospital building second floor. I didn’t witness any of this beat¬ 
ing but it was heard continually and distinctly. I was on one 
occasion in ward 27 and was assigned to take care of an employee 
who was placed in this ward suffering from sunstroke it was sup¬ 
posed. The night female attendant struck one hoy several times 
over the head and struck another boy who was suffering from 
some disease of the bone and was in a very helpless condition, on 
the head. 


50 


Q|. How serious were these blows? A. They were sterious 
enough to make them shriek with pain. He was suffering from 
pain anyhow from his affliction. 

Q. Did you do anything in this case; did you make any report 
to anybody in authority on the Island ? A. I did not. 

Q. These occurrences were all in the night time? A. Yea 

Q. At what hour of the night if you can recall? A. Ho 
special hour. 

Q. Late at night? A. Yes, usually late at night. 

Q. Did any other witnesses see these cases of brutality? Was 
anyone else present except the orderly? A. There may have 
been in some cases; I don’t recall. 

Q. Did anybody else see this man Mansfield ? A. Those were 
common occurrences among the orderlies. 

Q. How many did you personally see in all your seven weeks 
stay on the Island ? A. I am unable to give the number; the 
principal occurrences are in this report (indicating). 

Q. These are by hearsay only; what orderlies told you, not 
what you saw; how many did you see? A. Half a dozen oc¬ 
currences recorded in this (indicating) I was present. 

Q. And in all of them you followed your customary practice 
of making no report to anybody on the Island in a supervisory 
capacity? A. Yes. 

Q. What was the name of the nurse? A. M. I. Barton. 

Q. A woman attendant ? A. Yes. 

Q. Is she still on the Island ? A. I am unable to say. 

Q. Is Mansfield still on the Island? A. I understand that 
Mansfield left the Island voluntarily some time after this. 

Q. Do you know he wasn’t discharged? A. I don’t know 
definitely. 

Q. Is Williams still on the Island? A. He is not on the 
Island. 

Q. In your report you speak of instances of a boy struck by 
an orderly in charge of one of the dining-rooms after having been 
struck by fellow patients; what is the name of this orderly in the 
dining-room ? A. Thomas Muldoon. 

Q. Who was he ? A. An orderly in charge of the dining-room. 

Q. Is he still there so far as you know ? A. I don’t know. 


51 


Q. How severe was the punishment which Muldoon inflicted 
upon this inmate? A. Hot severe enough to cause any physical 
injury. 

Q. In your report you speak of the fact that Muldoon kicked 
this inmate and grabbed him by the wrists until the inmate 
screamed; you witnessed that? A. Yes. 

Q. Did you in any way stop that cruel treatment? A. Ho. 

Q. Did you see boys who seemed to be in danger of real bodily 
harm and were in need of assistance and you did nothing? A. 
Ho; I didn’t consider the boy was in danger of suffering any 
physical permanent injury. 

Q. Tell us about your other discoveries on the Island in refer¬ 
ence to general conditions. A. That is rather general. 

Q. Tell us any of the experiences you can which you subse¬ 
quently reported to the department as the result of your inspec¬ 
tion ? A. I reported on a great many things, the method of 
handling the food supplies to the wards, feeding patients. 

Q. Can you give us any details of that? A. Under the last 
mentioned in several of the wards I noted on various occasions 
that certain patients did not receive the allowances of food granted 
the others. 

Q. Did you make inquiry as to why there was a variation in 
the allowance ? A. I did, of several orderlies and inmates. 

Q. Was there any valid reason assigned to you for this differ¬ 
ence in allowance? A. That there simply wasn’t enough to go 
around or that the inmates didn’t eat the food anyhow. 

Q. Was there any truth in that last statement so far as you 
saw or knew? A. I frequently saw bowls of cereal which was 
uneaten by the inmates to whom it was given. 

Q. You made inquiry of no one except orderlies or inmates as 
to the variation of this food allowance? A. Ho. 

Q. Were any complaints ever made to you while an orderly by 
any inmates that they hadn’t received enough food? A. I don’t 
recall them. 

Q. Isn’t it a fact that you never received any complaints ? A. 
I can’t recall any. 

Q. Wouldn’t you recall it if you had? A. I might. 

Q. You recall most of the important happenings on the Island ? 
A. Yes. 


52 


Q. And yon can recall no instance in which any inmate told 
yon he or she did not receive enough food? A. No, sir. 

Q. When did you report these conditions to the Commissioner, 
after each occurrence or did you wait until your final report was 
ready ? A. I made a general report after my service on the Island 
hut frequently when I was on the Island I reported verbally to Mr. 
Dinwiddie and I think several times to Mr. Kingsbury. 

Q. So far as you know were any steps taken by Commissioner 
Kingsbury at the time of receiving your reports to remedy any of 
these abuses you reported back ? A. I don’t know of any. 

Q. What other subjects of the administration work on the 
Island did your investigation cover — besides food supplies and 
the cruel treatment of inmates ? A. I believe I reported about 
the lack of screens on the dining-rooms and wards. 

Q. Did you find out or try to find out whether there were such 
screens on the Island ? A. No. 

Q. You simply noticed there were none? A. There were 
none. 

Q. And in consequence of the unscreened condition of doors 
and windows what results followed ? A. Mosquitoes and flies were 
in great abundance in the wards and dining-rooms. 

Q. Were there none on any of the buildings ? A. Some were 
placed in some of the dining-rooms and possibly some of the wards 
during the end of my service. 

Q. Did you have access to the linen closet or rooms where 
fresh sheets are kept? A. Dor that ward. 

Q. And there were none? A. I had used practically all that 
there were at the time I reported. 

Q. You made no complaint to anybody except that supervising 
nunse as to the insufficiency of the supply for that ward ? A. No, 
sir. 

Q. You thought it sufficient to mention it to the supervising 
nurse? A. Yes sir. 

Q. As a. matter of fact weren’t you sent over there to find out 
things from the standpoint of one seeking to find unsatisfactory 
conditions ? A. No. 

Q. What was your last day’s service there? A. August 15. 

Q. What instructions were given you by Mr. Dinwiddie? A. 
As closely as I can recall my instructions were to get work on the 


53 


Island as an orderly without my true position being known and 
see from the inside what I could of conditions particularly as ro- 
gards the care of the children; I don’t recall anything more 
definite than that. 

Q. When you applied for work did you apply just as you are 
now ? A. No. 

Q. You never reported to the departmental authorities that the 
superintendent on the Island had had knowledge of these occur¬ 
rences? A. No. 

Q. You never understood that that knowledge was brought 
home to her at the time of these beatings and cases of inhumane 
treatment? A. No, sir. 

Q. How did you come to be selected for this particular work 
when you had no experience ? A. My work in the University of 
Washington where I took my bachelor’s and master’s degrees was 
along sociological lines. I had taken considerable honors along 
that field and was considered quite well qualified for the position 
by Mr. Kingsbury. I came to New York and applied to him. 

Q. This was the first institutional work you had done? A. 
Broadly speaking, yes. 

Q. Are you a citizen here? A. Yes. 

Q. Were you a citizen when employed ? A. I hadn’t gained a 
residence when employed. 

Q. When did you gain such residence ? A. I considered I was 
a citizen as soon as I came here and my residence as soon as the 
law allowed. 

Q. Did you know Mr. Kingsbury before? A. A slight ac¬ 
quaintance; I believe I had met him on one or two occasions. 

Q. Where? A. In Seattle. 

Q. Who recommended you to Mr. Kingsbury? A. Certain 
of the Faculty of the University of Washington. 

Q. Who else? A. I don’t recall anyone else. 

Q. Have you recommendations on file with the Commissioner 
stating your qualifications for this place ? A. I couldn’t tell you 
whether I have or not. 

Confidential Inspector Rice Quoted at Length 

The above testimony of Confidential Inspector Rice is quoted 
at length inasmuch as he is practically the only witness who testi¬ 
fied to seeing inmates ill-treated by hospital helper attendants. 


54 


Despite the testimony given by Mr. Rice it is a fact that it 
was nearly a year later that one of the attendants he speaks of 
was dismissed “ Dor the good of the service/’ another attendant, 
said to he a drunkard, left of his own accord and was re-employed, 
a third also left of his own accord, while the woman attendant com¬ 
plained of was dismissed and immediately re-employed because 
the present chief authorities on the Island became satisfied that she 
was mistakenly accused by Mr. Rice. 

Dr. Peet’s testimony on pages 351 and 352. 

Q. Did you on the occasion of any of your visits see any in¬ 
stance of corporal punishment or brutal treatment of the inmates ? 
A. I don’t recall; I might have seen some. 

Q. And did you on the occasion of any of your visits see chil¬ 
dren kept in physical restraint by tying them ? A. Yes. 

Q. That is subject to the doctors’ orders as a rule? A. That 
does not come within my department except so far as I have 
operated upon cases; I have operated on cases and have been 
obliged to order the cases restrained because of violence; if you 
want a specific case I can give it. 
********** 

Q. Did you ever see any cases of corporal punishment ? A. I 
don’t remember I have. 

Q. That was one of the charges against Mrs. Dunphy ? A. As 
I recall. 

Q. So when you stated the charges were substantially true you 
didn’t mean the charge as to corporal punishment was true; you 
had never seen any cases ? A. That was written by several men. 

Rabbi Berenberg s testimony on pag'n 378. 

Q. Do you come in contact with all the Jewish children on your 
weekly visits ? A. All that can, come to the service. 

Q. Other than those that come to the service, you don’t see or 
come in touch with the inmates on the Island? A. No; I am 
occasionally called to the wards to see some. 

Q. Did you at any time during your connection with the work 
receive any complaints on Randall’s Island of brutal or inhuman 
treatment of the inmates ?' A. No, sir. 


55 


Richard Beatty's testimony on page 380. 

Q. Did you have a full opportunity during your long service 
on the Island to see most of the inmates and observe their mode 
of treatment and the manner in which they were handled by 
orderlies and nurses? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Did you ever see any cases of brutal or inhumane treat¬ 
ment? A. Ho, sir. 

Q. Were any complaints ever made to you by any of the in¬ 
mates that they were mishandled or maltreated by the orderlies 
and attendants ? A. Ho, sir. 

Dr. Harris' testimony on pages 386, 387 and 388. 

Q. What was the number of those cases on the Island, normal. 
sick children who came under your care on the Island during the 
last year and a half ? A. There were about three or four hundred, 
sometimes three to five hundred normal children, a number were 
skin and eye cases and in the medical wards there were probably 
a hundred I should say. 

Q. Outside of your contact with these hundred children did you 
have much of an opportunity to inspect and get in touch with gen¬ 
eral conditions on the Island on the occasion of your visits or any 
other occasions? A. Hot except so far as to looking after nurs¬ 
ing and diet had any connection with it. 

Q. Did you ever see evidence of cruel and inhumane treat¬ 
ment? A. Personally I did not. 

Q. Did you ever see cases of improper restraint of inmates 
where such restraint had not been ordered by a doctor or nurse? 
A. Ho; I never saw any personally. 

Q. Did you prior to signing and sending this letter have occasion 
to examine the specifications embraced in the so-called Dunphy 
charges ? A. Yes. 

Q. Cruel and inhuman treatment? A. Ho; I have no personal 
knowledge and yet that was reported by the Ex-President of the 
Society of the Medical Board of his personal knowledge. 

Q. Do you mind giving us the name of that Ex-President ? A. 
Dr. Stowell made a statement of that and I believed him. 

Q. Without having any knowledge of your own other than his 
own statement? A. Exactly. 


56 


Q. The second had to do with the restraint of the feeble¬ 
minded. A. I had no personal knowledge. 

Q. Did you similarly have the direct word of somebody as to 
that specification of charges against Mrs. Dunphy of the improper 
restraint of inmates ? A. I don’t recall. 

Q. You do recall however that Dr. Stowell was your authority 
as to cruel treatment but you can’t tell of anybody who told you 
of the restraint of inmates by tying them without orders from a 
nurse or physicians ? A. Ho. 

Dr. Stow ell’s testimony on page 399. 

Q. Did you ever witness brutal or inhumane treatment of 
inmates ? A. I have witnessed corporal punishment and have wit¬ 
nessed other children being cowed with sticks; I don’t disapprove 
of corporal punishment. 

Q. Can you give any instances of brutal or inhumane treatment 
you personally saw ? A. For instance I was going upstairs in the 
South Hospital and I heard a hullaballoo and went in and saw the 
head nurse and the nurse of the ward standing by while an older 
feeble-minded boy was beating another with a strap under their 
supervision. They didn’t touch the boy but they stood by and 
countenanced the beating of the boy by another. I went to the 
superintendent and told her; she thought it couldn’t be so, but I 
asked her what they had a black strap in so many wards for, some¬ 
body must use them. 

Q. Did you protest to the ward nurse and the head nurse ? A. 
I had no occasion to, they went four ways at once in less time than 
it takes me to tell it. 

Q. Was that the only instance in which you have seen corporal 
punishment ? A. That I recall now. 

Mrs. Hazard’s testimony on pages 405 and 406. 

Q. In your many visits to the Island and observation did you 
ever see any instance of cruel or brutal or inhumane treatment of 
the inmates ? A. I never did. One of the terrible things there was 
the very low class of attendants which was necessary owing to the 
ridiculous prices paid there and it was a matter of astonishment 


57 


to me that so low a grade of attendants could be as capable as they 
were and have such patience with such trying patients as these 
feeble-minded patients are. 

Maoc Nihlas , former deputy superintendent, Randall’s Island, 
testimony on page 419. 

Q. Did you ever see any cruel or brutal or inhumane treat¬ 
ment of inmates? A. Never. 

Miss Johnson’s testimony on page 427. 

Q. Did you ever see any of the feeble-minded children im¬ 
properly, cruelly or inhumanely treated by orderlies or attend¬ 
ants ? A. In one instance, in the year 1910, consisting of an 
orderly who had been on the Island for ten years I think, kicking 
a boy and throwing him to the ground and down in the playground 
in full view of all the inmates. I wrote a report of that fact. He 
was discharged very soon after my letter was received. 

Q. Who discharged him ? A. The superintendent discharged 
him. If I might add, the only thing that seemed of interest really 
was the openness of the things. 

Mrs. Dunphy’s , testimony on pages 490, 491 and 493. 

Q. Your statement before Commissioner Wright was that you 
had heard of only five cases of brutal treatment that had come up 
during your period ? A. And I named them, and they were dis¬ 
missed. 

Q. And you have no recollection of any other cases ? A. I have 
no knowledge of any other case and the case of this Elmore I don’t 
remember of his ever coming to me with a black eye or hearing 
of it. 

Q. You are aware that Mr. Kice has reported here of con¬ 
siderable brutality, of various instances of brutality ?' A. I have 
heard it; it is absolutely untrue that it should have occurred with¬ 
out my knowing it; every case of beating or striking was reported 
to the Commissioner and the offender was recommended for 
dismissal. 


! 


58 

Q. The inference in that is that Rice wasn’t telling the truth 
or am I to draw my own inference from it ? A. It is absolutely 
untrue. 

********* * 

Q. I find in the files, of the Department an affidavit by Harry 
Baker as to brutalities by orderly Joseph P. Blake. A. I always 
regarded him as an excellent man. 

Q. And no instances of brutality were reported to you? A. 
Ho; Baker was one of the human derelicts who received $10 a 
month and was dismissed for intoxication. 

Acting Superintendent Flick’s tesimony on pages 521, 522, 523 
and 524. 

Q. You have testified heretofore in this proceeding that you 
are the acting superintendent of the institutions here; are you 
still acting in that capacity ? A. Yes. 

Q. Do you, as acting superintendent, have occasion to mete out 
punishment to delinquents or wrongdoers on the Island ? A. 
Yes, sir. 

Q. What form does that punishment take ? A. Deprivation of 
privileges, isolation, a coarser kind of diet. 

Q. What are the privileges of which you deprive offenders ? 
A. For slight punishment deprive them of gymnasium during the 
evening; deprive them of visits for one or two or three visits. 

Q. The right to receive visits ? ! A. The right to receive visits 
from their parents. If that is more serious, isolation and restrain 
them by permission of the doctor. 

Q. What form does the isolation take; where do you confine 
them ? A. In the basement. 

Q. Of what building ? A. The basement of F2 Building. 

Q. F2 Building; is that one of the older buildings? A. Yes, 
that is an old building. 

********** 

Q. What is the condition of this basement in which this isola¬ 
tion is had ? A. It is dry, well aired and well ventilated. 

Q. So that the immediate physical surroundings are fairly 
hygienic and sanitary? A. Hygienic and sanitary, yes, for a 
short period. 


59 


Q. Is there further physical restraint than the isolation in 
some of these cases? A. There has been physical restraining with 
the permission of the doctors. 

Q. What form does that take, strait jacket? A. He is tied 
around the feet and arms. 

Q. Around both feet and arms ? A. Around their body for a 
short time. 

Q. Can the inmates who are so physically restrained walk ? Are 
they permitted to move around ? A. They are tied down to beds. 

Q. For how long does such restraint continue? A. A period 
for about twenty-four hours at a time. 

Q. How are these inmates fed during this period of restraint ? 
A. By a nurse. 

Q. And is there a similar restraint of diet during this period of 
punishment ? A. Bread and milk. 

Q. Which was an accumulated punishment added to the isola¬ 
tion ? A. The diet, that is a part of the punishment. 

Q. For what wrongdoings or delinquencies are these penalties 
inflicted? A. We have here a minimum to about seventy-five 
cases who are committed here by the court, from the Supreme 
Court, General Sessions, boys from 18 to 24 years of age, who are 
really criminal and need strict discipline. As we have no disci¬ 
plinary building it is necessary to inflict punishment upon these 
criminal delinquents, otherwise their influence over the feeble¬ 
minded portion of the institution will be so deleterious that it 
would be impossible to conduct properly the business of the insti¬ 
tution.' It is true that those criminal cases should not be confined 
on Randall's Island but we haven’t found a way yet to take them 
away from the Island; they are criminals and delinquents; by 
stretching a line perhaps you can call them high grade feeble¬ 
minded. 

Q. This punishment is only inflicted upon the criminal? A. 
Yes, those committed by the courts, that is people who in the 
courts, in the regular course of court procedure will very likely 
get two years in State Prison. 

Q. Has this infliction of punishment the approval of the heads 
of the department ? A. Yes. 

Q. Do they know of it ? A. Yes. 


60 


Q. Does Commissioner Kingsbury know of it? A. He knows 
of the criminals. I don’t know whether Commissioner Kingsbury 
knows it or not; Commissioner Wright knows of it; we advised 
means to do it and it was approved, that isolation. 

Q. Deputy Commissioner Wright approves this measure of 
punishing delinquents ? A. Criminal delinquents. 

Q. Are any of these delinquents kept in this physical restraint 
and isolation for a period of longer than twenty-four hours? A. 
It does occur in a few occasions on the recommendation of the 
doctor. 

Q. How long did isolation of delinquents continue in these few 
cases ? A. Three days. 

Miss Bartons testimony on page 539. 

Q. You are employed in what capacity ? A. As nurse. 

Q. How long have you been upon the Island ? A. Dive years. 

Q. Are you aware of a rule in force on this Island which pro¬ 
hibits the infliction of corporal punishment upon an offender ? A. 
Yes. 

Q. Did you ever violate that rule by inflicting corporal punish¬ 
ment upon a child ? A. Never. 

Q. If the records of this Committee show a charge that you 
struck an inmate or inflicted corporal punishment upon a child, 
is that true ? A. It is not true because I have never struck a child 
on the Island; I have been twenty-five years a nurse and have 
never been complained of before. 

Q. Do you know Mr. Stuart A. Rice who is an investigator 
of the Department of Public Charities ? A. I believe he was in 
the ward one night and I have never seen him since. 

Q. Do you know who he is ? A. I remember seeing him in the 
night ward. 

Q. Did you ever in his presence strike or hit an inmate? A. 
No. 

Q. Did you ever at any time violate the rule as to the infliction 
of corporal punishment? A. I did not. 

Q. And if Rice makes that statement that you did so strike 
a child ? A. It is erroneous because I have never struck a child; 
the children wouldn’t be so fond of me if I was cruel to them. 


61 


Second. The Testimony with Relation to the Alleged Im¬ 
proper Restraint of Inmates 

Inspector Dinwiddle’s testimony on page 14. 

Q. Did you ever see any evidence of any physical harm to a 
child by reason of being restrained in that manner? A. I don’t 
think I did. 

Q. Did you know Dr. Bernstein of Rome? A. Rot personally. 

I have had correspondence with him. 

Q. Do you know that he is considered an authority on feeble¬ 
minded? A. I know. 

Q. Did you ever visit the institution at Rome? A. Ro, sir. 

Q. You could see many persons confined up there to prevent 
their scratching their faces, tearing their hair and tearing their 
clothes. A. I don’t understand the rule that forbids the confine¬ 
ment without order of a physician. 

Q. I am not speaking of the rules. Ro evil results happened 
that you know of ? A. Rot to my personal knowledge. 

Father Jansens testimony on page 261. 

Q. Did you ever see any cases of corporal punishment or where 
brutal or vicious punishment had been administered? A. Ro, I 
saw the female idiots, ABC Building, that some were tied and 
had a strait jacket on and I immediately saw that was necessary 
and did no longer inquire. 

Q. Do you mean you found it was necessary by inquiry? A. 
Ro, by appearance; by looking and everything I sized up the 
person. 

Q. What did you think those idiots would do if not confined? 
A. I think they would do harm to themselves and perhaps lift 
their clothing or something of that kind, that is the impression 
it made on me. 

Q. Did you see any punishment whatever? A. Ro; I have 
never seen anything of the kind. 

Dr. Cornwell’s testimony on page 224. 

Q. Did you on the occasion of your various visits see signs of 
physical restraint, patients tied to beds? A. Yes. It was done 
pursuant to order. 


62 


Q. Do you know of any instances in which restraint was had 
without order contrary to the rules ? A. Never. 

Q. What is the object of this restraint? A. The object of the 
restraint is twofold. In a great many instances it is for the pur¬ 
pose of preventing patients who have a number of convulsions 
every day, as a good many do, from injuring themselves. In others 
it is for the purpose of maintaining patients in an erect position 
who are not only mentally feeble-minded but physically so helpless 
they cannot sit up. 

Q. What form does this restraint take? A. It takes the form 
of a strap being carried around the body and to the back of the 
chair. Some of the irritable and epileptics have to have jackets 
put on with blind sleeves in order to prevent them from mutilating 
themselves. That is done as a matter of protection and not as a 
measure of discipline. 

Acting Superintendent Flick's testimony on pages 271 and 272. 

Q. Do you still follow on the Island the practice of physical 
restraint of some of the inmates ? A. Yes. 

Q. That is had in what cases, do you know ? A. In the lower 
class of idiots where the patient if he is under restraint is not 
going to harm himself or harm another patient. 

Q. In these cases the order of restraint is originally given by 
one of the physicians ? A. Yes. 

Q. And then the restraining is had simply because of that 
order? A. Yes; because it is necessary. 

Q. There is no case in which it is done without the physician’s 
order ? A. There is no case in which there is a strait jacket with¬ 
out a physician’s orders. 

Q. And when you see one of these cases do you find out 
whether there is an order for it ? A. I find out about it. 

Dr. Stowell’s testimony on page 400. 

Q. The second of the charges or specifications refers to tying 
the hands of the feeble minded children and placing them in strait 
jackets and in restraining jackets without orders of physicians; 
do you personally know whether children were restrained with¬ 
out a physician’s order ? A. I know a .great deal of the time I 


63 


was on duty there was too much restraint of cases; I can under¬ 
stand that some had to be restrained at times; frequently we had 
to get after the house staff because it is the easiest thing to do 
with a feeble minded idiot if he runs away and is troublesome 
is to tie him up. 

Q. Did you ever inquire in any of these cases where you saw 
restraint practiced whether orders had been received from the 
physician or nurse so to restrain the inmates? A. I don’t re¬ 
member any specific case. 

Q. Do you know any specific case in which there was restrain¬ 
ing without an order from any physician or head nurse? A. I 
know of no specific case; I know it used to come up frequently 
that there was too much restraint of cases. 

Q. Who was the official to decide upon restraint, the house 
surgeon or the nurse in charge ? A. According to the rules, the 
house physician. 

Mrs. Hazard's testimony on page 406. 

Q. Did you see much of the so-called restraint of patients? 
A. I have seen some. 

Q. Did you inquire into such cases? A. I inquired a few 
months ago of a boy and I went up to him and said: “ Why are 
you tied here ?” and he said: “ Because I fall on my head,” and 
he was an epileptic and he was sitting in a chair and he was tied 
so he could not fall over, and that was all. 

Max NiJclas' testimony on page 419. 

Q. Did you ever see any restraint of inmates without the 
orders of physicians or nurses? A. Never, without the orders 
of the physicians and in every case I inquired into it was with 
the permission of the doctor given in every instance. 

Third. Testimony With Relation to the Alleged Failure 
to Quarantine and Segregate Inmates 

Deputy Commissioner Wright's testimony on pages 20, 21, 22a, 
32 a, 38, 39, 40 and 41. 

Q. You have charge of the medication, or the supervision of the 
giving of medicines on Randall’s Island ? A. No. 


64 


Q. What is jour connection with that branch of the service on 
the Island? A. The supervision of the requisitions for medical 
and surgical supplies and seeing that they are got to the institu¬ 
tion. The medication itself is given by the Medical Board. 

Q. Can you tell us in a general way what you know of the con¬ 
ditions on the Island in so far as they apparently need betterment ? 
A. That is a rather broad assignment. 

******* -x- ** 

Q. Were there any evil consequences attendant upon this prac¬ 
tice of intermingling you have described ? A. I would refer you 
to the report of the General Inspector who examined carefully the 
record of a large number of patients. 

Q. You don’t of your own knowledge know of any and can’t 
give us any facts of your own knowledge ? A. No. 
******** * * 

Q. Do you know the percentage of employees who after a limited 
period of service quit ? A. I can’t tell you that. 

Q. Is it not true that by increasing the wage scale and by get¬ 
ting a better class of employees you found a larger percentage of 
people who stayed permanently in the service ? A. Yes. 

Q. Do you find any better result as far as the isolation of pa¬ 
tients is concerned ? A. Yes. 

******* **** 

Q. You found fault with this reception building, and the pa¬ 
tients and the children not being isolated, you are in charge of 
that and yet you had no system devised for correcting it? A. We 
put those things first up to the officers of an institution always. 
We call their attention to certain evil results. There was a requi¬ 
sition that came to us last year for the building of two more isola¬ 
tion buildings which means caring for people after getting a con¬ 
tagious disease. We asked at that time the question why an effort 
wasn’t made to stop the disease at the inception rather than at the 
isolation and various efforts were made to get the thing corrected 
hut it wasn’t done until we took hold and readjusted matters. We 
took away all common dining rooms. Each group of children is' 
taken in and examined, the group going in a particular depart¬ 
ment. A group is put in a certain building in a certain room and 
kept there ten days and they are fed in their own particular room 


65 


and the greatest precautions are taken in not allowing nurses to 
go from one division to another without washing and great pre¬ 
cautions. The serving attendants that we harbored in that build¬ 
ing were moved out so that they would not be common carriers 
and sliding doors are being erected at divisions in hallways to 
make it impossible for children to get away from the nurse and 
getting over to another division. None of these things were car¬ 
ried out two months ago. I consider them fundamental and a 
medical man surely must consider them so. 

Q. Who did you request to have this carried out when you saw 
the conditions? A. The superintendent and the Medical Board, 
both. 

Q. What reply did you get from the Medical Board ? A. They 
replied that they would take hold of it. 

Q. I want to satisfy myself on one point. Fault was found by 
you, you testified, with regard to the reception building. I want 
to get at the cause of that fault and you haven’t yet explained to 
me sufficiently where the fault lies. You having been the execu¬ 
tive officer for the past seventeen months, what explanation have 
you to make to us showing that you performed your duties as 
executive officer to see these children were properly isolated before 
they were distributed ? A. When we give orders or suggestions 
to the Superintendent or anybody else we expect to give a reason¬ 
able length of time for carrying them out. They were not detailed 
suggestions, they were suggestions to reduce the possibility of 
cross infection. I don’t consider it my duty to take up these details 
until forced to do so because somebody else doesn’t do so. These 
fundamental conditions were called to the attention of both the 
Superintendent and the Medical Board and as time passed on 
they were corrected in minor degree only. Certain things were 
done. Apparently there was less running around than before and a 
little more care on the part of the nurses but from time to time 
we found out what was actually being done and the results were 
not as we wanted them. 

********* * 
Q. Mr. Wright, has there ever been on Randall’s Island to your 
knowledge or information an infectious disease carried out from 
3 


66 


the detention hospital, or reception buildings? A. I don’t be¬ 
lieve I could say so. 

Q. Did you ever hear of one ? A. There are current rumors. 

Dr. Boohs testimony on pages 133, 134 and 135. 

Q. You are house surgeon, are you not? A. Resident phy¬ 
sician. 

Q. If there is any grave illness you are the first one appealed 
to ? A. Myself or Dr. Reed, the other physician. 

By Mr. Cotton: 

Q. Has there been contagious disease upon the Island? A. 
Lots of it. 

Q. What do you attribute it to ? A. Visitors to the Island, to 
the wards. 

Q. Visitors coming into the wards ? A. Yes. 

Q. And do you think they spread contagious diseases that way ? 
A. I think it is carried there that way; it is the only possible 
way and it is brought there by one child and the other children 
contract it. 

*********** 

Q. It was testified to here by the deputy commissioner that 
a great many of the children were kept in the detention hospital 
or reception hospital hut there seemed to he no reason given why; 
it was simply stated that some of the children were kept there a 
week or ten days ? A. Some of the older boys and girls, not many, 
are kept there to help in the wards. 

Q. They are assigned there and might be there any length of 
time, months? A. Yes; there is one girl who has been there ever 
since I have been there, helping in the pavilion on the first floor, 
the girls’ wards. 

Q. Is the danger any greater there than it is on the wards 
where visitors come in? A. It can’t be because all the trouble 
with infectious diseases and contagious diseases has been on the 
wards. 

Q. Do you have any stated period of keeping newcomers in this 
detention hospital ? A. Ten days. 

Q. Is this sufficient to cover all possible cases of incubation of 
contagious diseases ? A. Except measles. 


67 


Q. How long a period would be required in that case? A. 
Fourteen days. 

Q. You don’t, however, detain your newcomers fourteen days ? 
A. Ho; we usually haven’t the room to do it. 

Q. Do your statistics show many cases of measles carried by 
newcomers? A. Ho. 

Commissioner Kingsbury's testimony on pages 163, 164 and 
174. 

Q. Did you not think the members of this Atypical Board con¬ 
sisting of doctors were competent to pass upon the proper safe¬ 
guards against the spread of communicable diseases? A. I had 
my doubts; the men who were visiting there, the very distinguished 
members of that Board, were consultants and didn’t visit reg¬ 
ularly. 

Q. How many members were there on this Board ? A. I think 
there were seven. 

Q. And you divide that Board into very distinguished mem¬ 
bers and less distinguished? A. Yes. 

Q. Will you tell us who the very distinguished as well as the 
less distinguished members were ? A. Dr. Carlos F. MacDonald 
and Dr. Mabon; they didn’t know anything about it. 

Q. Who else were of these very distinguished members ? A. 
Dr. Saxe, I should think. 

Q. Are these the only members? A. I could make another 
classification, of celebrated or notorious characters — 

Q. Ho, we wont ask you to do that. Can you give the names 
of the other members of this Board or such as you recall? A. 
Dr. Bisch, I think is a member; Dr. Cornwell is a member. 

Q. Is that all? A. Oh, Dr. Schlapp, I forgot, is a member, 
Dr. Max Schlapp, and then there are one or two more; how many 
is that? 

Q. You have named six. A. There is another. 

Q. Did we understand you to say that you didn’t believe 
that some of the members of this Board are competent to pass 
upon the question of preventing the spread of communicable dis¬ 
ease ? A. I mean they were not concerning themselves with that 
and it is not their specialty. Dr. Bisch, for example, has no 
general practice at all; he considers himself a specialist in mental 


68 


diseases; Dr. Schlapp concerns liimself entirely with mental dis¬ 
eases. The general order seemed to recognize that that board was 
not expected to have knowledge of that; it indicated that in med¬ 
ical questions of that kind this board would call in the members 
of the other board to advise and treat these cases, but as a matter 
of fact they didn’t call them or if they did it was on rare 
occasions. 

Q. Any board comprised of a number of practitioners, whether 
specialists or not, ought to be able to pass upon this question ? A. 
There are some doctors who have been so long out of practice they 
say they wouldn’t attempt to; this board made no examinations 
so far as I can determine until the cases were flagrant, until the 
cases were ill. 

******* **** 

Q. In what way could the blame be brought home to the super¬ 
intendent, a woman who was a layman and not a doctor ? A. For 
failing to carry out orders for the segregation and treatment of 
patients. 

Q. Who was charged with the treatment of patients under the 
doctors’ care ? A. The nurses, the superintendent primarily. 

Q. The superintendent primarily and at all times must take 
orders from the doctors who treat these children ? A. Yes. 

Q. So if blame there be for laxity of treatment that ought to 
rest in the first place with these two medical boards rather than 
the superintendent ? A. Yes; I think they should share it. 

Q. How far have these conditions been corrected since the abolT 
tion of this one board ? A. To a large extent. 

Q. Isn’t there some intercommunication of disease from patient 
to patient or from visitors to patients? A. I think it has been 
cared for pretty carefully. 

Inspector Parks’ testimony on pages 186, 195, 196, 197 and 

198. 

Q. What did you find about the skin disease charge? A. It 
hadn’t been treated with sufficient promptitude and energy. 

Q. Whose fault was it? A. The house physician admitted it 
had been his fault. He had been away on vacation and he had 
omitted to give instructions to his assistant. 



69 


Q. And it was not the fault of any lay superintendent? A. 

No. 

*********** 

Q. In the condition of the Island at the time you saw it did 
you regard the detention service as adequate? A. What do you 
mean by detention service? 

Q. Did you examine into it? A. At the time of my inspec¬ 
tion there were very few children in the reception hospital; it 
showed only 13 in the building altogether that could accommodate 
50. It was stated there was a ten days’ reception quarantine 
which in my opinion was inadequate. 

Q. Did you find proper isolation of contagious cases when you 
went there in April ? A. In regard to the reception quarantine, 
none of the children at that time had any communicable diseases. 
There was scarlet fever prevalent in two or three wards and in 

the school wards and they were isolated. 

**** ******* 

Q. Did you make any inquiry in the course of your inspections 
there in April as to the changes if any in the number of toys and 
games and facilities for recreation and for play for the inmates 
with what had been the rule before the suspension of the super¬ 
intendent in the fore part of March? A. No. 

Q. Was any statement of differences or changed conditions from 
what had been the rule made to you? A. Only the statement 
that except in matters of detail there had been no radical changes 
made. 

Q. By whom was that told you ? A. By Mr. Flick. 

Dr. Schlapp’s testimony on pages 210, 211 and 212. 

Q. How far in your opinion if at all was there any communica¬ 
tion of disease on the Island incurred through the coming over of 
parents and visitors to the inmates ? A. I should say all the in¬ 
fections or most of them spread in that way, brought over by the 
visitors, that is, from the families of the children. 

Q. Do you state that of and from your own observation? A. 
There are cases w r e know where they had received visitors a day 
previous to the outbreak of scarlet fever; there are several cases 
known where a certain inmate had received a visit from their 


70 


family and a day or forty-eight hours after that same patient had 
scarlet fever. 

Q. How far in your opinion was there any intercommunication 
of contagious disease on the Island from inmate to inmate from 
improper precautions or negligence on the part of those in super¬ 
visory control? A. Whenever symptoms were observed in any 
patient indicating contagious disease it was isolated and placed in 
the shacks, small buildings away from the rest of the wards. 

Q. Under whose supervision and authority was this segregation 
of suspected cases had ? A. Under the Medical Board, the Atypi¬ 
cal Board, having to do with out-children, and they were then 
placed over in the shacks and treated by the internes. 

Q. Ho part of it would fall directly or indirectly upon the 
superintendent, that was not for lay supervision? A. Ho; that 
was in the hands of the Medical Board and physicians on the 
Island. 

Q. So far as you know and observed how far were the typical 
and atypical cases permitted to mingle in the eating rooms and 
playgrounds and institutional buildings ? A. The reception ward 
is one building and the typical as well as the others are admitted 
in this reception ward and there is one dining ward and the chil¬ 
dren are allowed to mingle. 

Q. For how long a period of time? A. Two weeks. 

Q. So this intermingling was confined to this period of deten¬ 
tion in the reception ward ? A. The children were sent over to 
respective wards where they belonged and after that there was no 
mingling unless it might be the child might walk along the street 
and pass by other children. 

Q. So far as you know was this intermingling the cause of the 
spread of any contagion on the Island? A. Hot that I know of. 

Q. You would be apt to know,? A. I should think so. 

Q. Do you know of any such instances ? A. Ho, I know of no 
such instances. 

Dr. Cornwell’s testimony on pages 225, 226, 231 and 232. 

Q. Do you know what percentage of atypical cases suffer from 
infectious diseases, contracting the disease after admission to the 
Island ? A. I think I can’t tell you just what proportion. 


71 


Q. Was it large? A. I think it was large. 

Q. To what do you ascribe this ? A. To the fact that the in¬ 
fection was brought to the Island by their relatives and friends. 

Q. On what ground do you base that belief? A. Because I 
don’t see any other way in which it could be brought. They come 
to the Island as feeble-minded or otherwise defective mental cases. 
They do not come as suffering from any acute infectious disease. 
There is no more reason for suspecting them of carrying an infec¬ 
tious disease to the Island than their parents when they come and 
visit and yet we keep these patients in the detention hospital for 
two weeks but have never exercised any supervision over the rela¬ 
tives and friends who have come to visit them. It is rather para¬ 
doxical. 

Q. Are there no department rules regulating the matter of 
visits ? A. Ho. 

Q. Do you think it is a good part of administration to have no 
supervision or regulation of the right of visit by parents and 
relatives ? A. Theoretically it is very had but practically I don’t 
think it could ever work out. I don’t think it could because so 
much sentimental publicity would be given to the fact that the 
plan would fail because the people would not stand for it although 
it would he the best thing for all concerned. 

Q. Do you ascribe the presence of this contagion and infection 
to improper segregation of sick cases ? A. I do not. 

Q. You think the segregation of the diseased cases is complete ? 
A. Yes, and I think when you compare it with the conditions that 
exist in many other hospitals you will find there will he a favorable 
comparison. 

Q. Since the dismissal of your Atypical Board haven’t new 
doctors been appointed to the remaining general hoard so that in 
combined membership it equals the combined membership on 
the two old boards ? A. I don’t know anything about that. 

Q. Assuming that that has been done and that the new mem¬ 
bers who have been added are more or less specialists in this 
administration work, would not the substitution of the new hoard 
be preferable to the continuance of the old two separate boards ? A. 
Well, it depends on what you mean by a single board; if you 
mean a board divided up into services each of which service deals 


72 


with a particular class of cases then I should say that is equiva¬ 
lent to having separate boards. 

Q. Do you think it proper to have typical and atypical cases 
on Randall’s Island? A. I don’t think it makes any difference 
if there can be separation. 

Q. Isn’t it a fact that complete separation and segregation is 
more or less impossible? A. Yes. 

Q. Dr. Books your house surgeon testified that while he was on 
the Island my recollection is that he only had under his service in 
eight months I think seven cases of measles and eight cases of 
scarlet fever. Is that about the average for eight months for 2,000 
children ? A. I think there is more than that on the Island. 

Q. What would you say from your experience if there were 
seven cases of measles and eight cases of scarlet fever, what would 
you say as to the frequency of these diseases ? A. I should say it 
was a very small proportion of that population. 

Q. Do you know of any case or cases of contagion or infection 
emanating from the reception hospital? A. I cannot specifically 
recall any. 

Q. If there were any you would be notified. A. Yes. 

Dr. Brundages testimony on pages 236 and 237. 

Q. To what do you ascribe that spread of infection on the 
Island? A. It could he brought in to them or they would have 
had to contract it before admission and in that case it would have 
to break out within a few days, or few weeks. 

Q. What percentage fell within that few weeks ? A. Numerous 
cases. 

Q. Excluding these cases to what do you ascribe the infection 
in the other cases ? A. Brought in to the institution. 

Q. By whom ? A. By inmates subsequently admitted, by par¬ 
ents or may well have originated on the Island. 

Q. From what source? A. Because the buildings were old and 
in poor repair and there are cases of infectious disease where we 
cannot account for the source whether they be in the city or in an 
institution. 

Q. Was proper segregation had of these cases on the Island, of 
inmates who were suffering from contagious diseases so there 


73 


could be no direct communication to other children ? A. So far 
as we had room. 

Q. That wouldn’t fall to the superintendent who was a lay¬ 
man? A. No. The superintendent could not transfer cases if 
she wished it. 

Q. Is that the rule? A. That is the rule. 

Q. Are you sure? A. I am sure. 

Dr . Bisch’s testimony on page 242. 

Q. Can you give any instance of how complete the safeguards 
were to prevent intercommunication between one group of inmates 
and others ? A. Quite complete. 

Q. Wherein did they consist ? A. As gioon as an infectious dis¬ 
ease was discovered it was immediately segregated and there were 
certain cottages devoted to scarlet fever, measles, and so forth. 
Our board as the Medical Board soon after it was appointed 
brought in the custom of taking diphtheria cultures on every case 
admitted. 

Q. This matter of segregating infectious disease cases from 
others was apparently a matter of medical supervision and not 
for the superintendent who was a layman ? A. Absolutely. 

Dr. Stechmann s testimony on pages 254 and 255, 

Q. What percentage of the atypical cases, as far as you know, 
suffer from infectious or contagious diseases contracted subse¬ 
quent to their admission to the Island ? A. I couldn’t tell what 
percentage but the percentage would always be higher than among 
normal children because their power of resistance is less; they are 
more liable to contract them. 

Q. You are speaking of contagious diseases contracted subse 
quent to admission? A. Yes. 

Q. Was that to be ascribed in any way to improper segregation 
of the inmates suffering from those diseases? A. No; I think it 
was from allowing outsiders to call upon them, outsider® coming 
to the Island and mixing with the children. 

Q. Was there any departmental rule forbidding such visits? 
A. No; not that I know of. 


74 


Q. Who had the power to pass such a rule? A. I think the 
Commissioner had the power. 

Q. Was in your opinion any of these contagious diseases or 
their spread due to improper segregation of inmates or improper 
separation? A. No; we had complaints sometimes of improper 
segregation but it was usually in tuberculosis cases and we were 
told when we reported upon it that there were not sufficient locali¬ 
ties to take care of them. 

Q. Would you consider this question of segregation one that 
should be properly handled by a lay superintendent or the Medical 
Board ? A. I should think the medical authorities should be re¬ 
sponsible. 

Acting Superintendent Flick's testimony on page 272. 

Q. Do you know of your own knowledge since you have come 
to the Island what percentage of contagious disease there is con¬ 
tracted by the atypical children subsequent to their admission? 
A. No. 

Q. I® there much contagious disease, if you know, contracted 
by the atypical inmates subsequent to their admission and while 
they are on the Island? A. No. 

Q. Have you done anything looking to the segregation of the 
typical from the atypical cases to make impossible the intercom¬ 
munication of disease? A. We have put the different classes 
coming in reception in a different dining room; we suppressed the 
visitors in the detention hospital completely. We reduced the 
number of visiting days on the Island. 

Q. By detention hospital do you mean where you retain the 
newly received inmates ? A. Ten days. 

Q. And they are kept separate from the other inmates? A. 
Yes. 

Dr. Feet's testimony pages 349, 350 and 351. 

Q. Do you ascribe this spread of contagious disease on the 
Island to the division into two medical boards ? A. Partly and 
partly to the fact that the Atypical Board consisted of neurolo¬ 
gists. 


75 


Q. No responsibility for that spread of contagious diseases 
could attach to any lay person on the Island. A. Yes; the by¬ 
laws call for the superintendent’s informing us of the spread of 
these contagious diseases, it is not proper to' call them contagious 
although some of them are contagious,—communicable diseases. 

Q. The steps taken to prevent such further spread would be 
taken in the first instance by some one of the Medical Board ? A. 
No, I should hardly answer that in the affirmative for this reason: 
when I was chairman of the inspection committee I called Mrs. 
Dunphy’s attention to the fact that communicable and contagious 
diseases were spreading and it was one of the things that should 
be done, to segregate these cases; she made no effort to provide 
for segregating them and putting those of one form of contagious 
disease by themselves. 

Q. Bid any member of your Board ever give specific orders for 
the segregation of specific cases ? A. I have myself given specific 
orders when I knew the Board of Health were going to visit 
there. 

Q. Were they carried out in every instance? A. So far as I 
could recall. We made a great effort to see we made as good 
appearance as we could possibly make. 

Q. So far as you know any specific orders brought to the notice 
of the superintendent by the members, by any members of the 
Medical Board or yourself were always observed and carried out ? 
A. So far as I know. These were not specific orders to the 
superintendent; I talked with the superintendent about the segre¬ 
gation of these cases; she invariably answered me in a certain 
formal manner, “Yes, doctor ; you know as well as I do, doctor, 
these things have been going on for a long time, and yes doctor, 
we will attend to it,” and secondly when I learned that the Board 
of Health were likely to make their inspection I went to the 
supervising nurse who has charge of the nurses and said: “ That 
case must be removed to the quarantine and not left in this ward 
any longer,” and so far as I know it was removed. 

Richard Beatty's testimony on page 381. 

Q. Your duties were confined entirely to the hospital cases and 
the normal boys at the school and playgrounds? A. Yes. 


76 


Q. From your hospital experience are you able to tell us 
whether there was a more or less complete separation of contagious 
diseases from the other inmates or children? A. It was very 
strict that children suffering from contagious diseases were kept 
absolutely separate and not kept in contact with any children on 
the Island. 

Q. Was there more or less complete segregation of the normal 
children from the atypical cases ? A. Yes, sir. 

Dr. Harris' testimony on pages 387 and 388. 

Q. What wa© your belief as to the truth or sufficiency of these 
charges? A. I was a member of the Medical Board which is 
divided into different divisions and I remember on the presenta¬ 
tion to the Medical Board of the Division of Contagious Diseases 
and from the Division on Skin, and Eye, that there waist a great 
deal of mixed infection, secondary infections upon the Island 
and want of proper segregation. 

Q. To a certain extent don’t you regard that question of segre¬ 
gation as one properly of medical supervision rather than lay 
supervision? A. The complaint© were made by the Division of 
Eye and Skin Diseases to the Board because their orders were not 
carried out. 

Q. To whom were they given in the first instance? A. By the 
members of these Division© to someone in authority; it was upon 
the minutes of the Medical Board. 

Q. And it was only in regard to this one count that you had 
formed a definite opinion ? A. What are the others ? 

Q. Cruel and inhuman treatment? A. ETo; I have no personal 
knowledge and yet that was reported by the Ex-President of the 
Society of the Medical Board of his personal knowledge. 

Mrs. Hazard's testimony on pages 409 and 410. 

I would like to say a word about the medical boards which have 
been discussed here so freely. The two medical boards grew in 
a large degree I think, out of a very unfortunate thing that the 
city did in paying the resident physicians only a hundred dol¬ 
lars a year and I leave it to any one, what kind of physicians can 
you get for one hundred dollars a year, and that was constantly 


77 


worrying me and one day I saw two' men whom I was under the 
impression were high grade idiots and I spoke to them and I was 
told I had offended them very much and I found out they were 
the doctors. I took the matter up with a very philanthropic 
lady when she was on the Island and she thought it was a shame 
and the result was an offer to pay the salaries of physicians for 
the city and it was made to Commissioner Drummond and ac¬ 
cepted very gratefully and the money is sent to me and I pay 
them and see they justify the trust put upon them and that has 
enabled me to see more or less what has been going on in the 
medical boards and I don’t think there has been any conscious 
antagonism on the part of the resident physicians there against 
either of the two boards but there has been a desire to cooperate. 

Q. With the facilities at her disposal do you think Mrs. Dun- 
phy has made a good superintendent ? A. I think she is perfectly 
wonderful. 

Mrs. Dunphy s testimony on pages 494 and 495. 

Q. They came into the reception hospital and stayed fourteen 
days; there were seven wards in that reception hospital? A. Yes, 
eight wards, one an operating room or X-ray room. 

Q. Those seven wards, who would decide into which ward the 
children went? A. The doctor. The doctor decided, the eye 
cases were in one ward, the skin cases in another. 

Q. And under that regime they weren’t separated by the days 
they came in at all? A. Xo, not by the days. 

Q. That is if a child came into Ward 6 which had normal chil¬ 
dren and had been there five or six days and a case of disease 
was discovered in six that child would be held there during the 
period of quarantine? A. It would be, yes. 

Q. With the result very often it was held longer than the 
fourteen day period ? A. I don’t know; that was for the doctors. 

Q. You wouldn’t know about that? A. I would if the doctor 
signed a transfer slip; they never left a ward without a transfer 
slip signed by the physician in charge. 

Q. Wouldn’t you have a daily record of how many were in the 
reception wards ? A. Yes. 

Q. Didn’t that come before you every day? A. Yes. 


78 


Q. And every transfer order would come before you A. Yes. 

Q. And you would then assign them to another ward ? A. 
They would be assigned by the doctor, not by me. 

Fourth. Testimony With Relation to the Alleged In¬ 
sufficiency of Food 

Deputy Commissioner Wright's testimony on pages 18, 19, 22, 
and 23. 

Q. Did you have occasion to look into the question of com¬ 
plaints of infringements of the rules prescribed for feeding? A. 
Yes. 

Q. What are such complaints? A. I can’t tell. 

Q. Against whom were they made? A. They were against 
conditions and not individuals. 

Q. Can you tell the result of that investigation which you made 
in part ? A. Partially. 

Q. Tell us as far as you can, the result. A. Complaint was 
made that meat for instance was served three times a day in 
heavy quantities at the Nurses’ Home. Orders were given to re¬ 
duce that. Complaint was made that cereals were being served 
to children, which they didn’t eat and were day by day thrown 
out. Orders were given to correct these conditions. I don’t 
recall the details; I should have to look up the records. 

Q. Did that form of dietetics violate any rule which was in 
force at the time of complaint? A. There was a certain dietary 
prescribed for patients. 

Q. And was that form of dietetics prescribed violated by giv¬ 
ing meat three times a day? A. Yes. 

Q. Was there any other ground of criticism which occurred to 
you in regard to the conduct and administration of the institu¬ 
tions on Randall’s Island? A. The feeding system was not sat¬ 
isfactory. 

Q. What was the criticism of the feeding question ? A. There 
was very little attention given to what the children would or 
would not eat. If children cast aside food there seemed to be 
no basis for readjustment of the food. To give an illustration: 
Cereals were too little eaten by the children as they were served 
in the morning. Particularly, as an illustration, corn starch pud- 


79 


amg, comparatively little would be eaten. It was discovered that 
by putting more sugar upon it, it was all eaten and the sugar at 
the institution hadn’t all been ordered or used; apparently had 
all their supply been ordered or used they would have obviated 
the children’s dislike for this food. 

Q. Upon whom would the responsibility for that fact rest? A. 
Upon the superintendent. 

Q. Upon whom would be the responsibility for the interming¬ 
ling of patients ? A. The superintendent. 

Q. Outside of this criticism and the question of food what 
other criticism did you have to make in connection with the man¬ 
agement and control of the institutions? A. From personal 
knowledge, I think of nothing else. 

Q. So as the First Deputy of the department with general 
powers as deputy and large particular powers with reference to 
this Island your criticism of its management is restricted to these 
two features? A. So far as personal knowledge is concerned, 
yes. 

Commissioner Kingsbury's testimony on page 115. 

Q. There is nothing in any of these specifications representing 
your personal observation? A. They were not drawn with that 
in view. There are some things in there that I knew about. For 
example on two* or three occasions I have gone into the dining 
rooms at breakfast and found half the children sitting at the 
table without any food. 

Q. Wasn’t that due to slowness of service? A. No; they don’t 
get it; the explanation was that in the past they had refused it 
and didn’t like it and there was no use in putting it on for them 
because they didn’t eat it. 

Q. The cereal? A. Yes. 

Q. Only one article ? A,. The principal article, the cereal. 

Q. Who has charge? A. The responsible person for every¬ 
thing in the institution is the superintendent. 

Q. The general responsibility for everything in the Depart¬ 
ment is with the Commissioner? A. Yes. 

Q. You knew these things in November last and you took no 
steps to correct them ? A. This happened again and again. 


80 


Q. Were you there again and again? A. I was there at least 
three times. 

Dr. Boohs’ testimony on pages 130 and 131. 

Q. And you had free access to every building and every part 
of every building? A. Yes. 

Q. Did anybody deny you? A. No. 

Q. I would like to ask you whether or not in your judgment 
the children on Randall’s Island appeared to be well nourished ? 
A. The children are very well nourished on Randall’s Island. 

Q. I would like to inquire whether or not in your judgment 
during all this time the children appeared to be happy and con¬ 
tented ? A. As a general rule they are very happy. 

Q. Do they have that appearance? A. Yes. 

Q. With one or two exceptions doctor, isn’t it true that the 
buildings generally are fairly well adapted for the purposes for 
which they are used? A. Very few of the buildings are suitably 
adapted for human beings. 

Q. Have you been around when the children were being fed? 
A. Yes, very often. 

Q. What did you observe about the amount of food and their 
partaking of it ? A. There always seemed to be as much as they 
wanted of it, speaking of dinner and supper time; I have never 
been around at breakfast. 

Q. Will the children eat the food set forth before them? A. 
Most of that class of children eat all that is put before them and 
as long as it is put before them. 

Inspector Park’s testimony on page 194. 

By Mr. Cotton: 

Q. Did you make a general survey of the conditions on Rand¬ 
all’s Island ? A. I did. 

Q. And you took up the various points you would take up in 
reporting on an institution ? A. The same as I would in any in¬ 
stitution. 

Q. Did you go to the records there to find out about the food 
used, and did you go to the records and examine the diet ? A. I 


81 


found the diet as given them on the records was satisfactory and 
from observation of the meals, 

Q. What was the date of this inspection? A. April 17-24. 

Dr. Brundages testimony on pages 235 and 236. 

Q. Were you in a position to observe whether the patients or 
inmates appeared to be well nourished and sufficiently fed ? A. I 
lived with them eighteen months. 

Q. Were all given sufficient food? A. Sufficient food and good 
food. 

Q. Were the general conditions satisfactory on the Island dur¬ 
ing the time you were there in so far as the general administra¬ 
tion, supervision and management of children might he concerned ? 
A. I considered they were. 

Q. In whose hands was the immediate supervision on the 
Island at that time, the resident physician ? A. Yes. 

Q. Who was the resident superintendent? A. Mrs. Dunphy 
was the resident superintendent at that time. 

Q. Did you come in contact with her and her work ? A. I 
saw her every day practically. 

Q. Did you consider the way she discharged her duties to be 
conscientious and complete ? A. Decidedly so. 

Dr. CornwelVs testimony on page 227. 

Q. From your examination of inmates at the times of your 
numerous visits did they strike you as being well and sufficiently 
nourished ? A. They appeared to me well and sufficiently nour¬ 
ished and I have always made it a point personally to inquire of 
patients who were sufficiently normal to answer intelligently as to 
whether they had enough to eat and I have never been told that 
they did not. 

Dr. Bisch’s testimony on pages 242 b, 243 and 244. 

Q. So far as you were able to judge from your visits to the 
Island and your examinations and inspections there did the in¬ 
mates appear properly nourished ? A. I found them properly 
nourished. I happened to be a member of the Diet Committee 
and frequently made rounds in the kitchens with the dietitian 
and I also frequently saw the patients at their meals and it always 
seemed to me the food was sufficient in quantity and good in 
quality also. We had, if we may be allowed to add, as far as diet 


82 


was concerned, we always had to contend with the bringing of food 
on the part of parents ; they brought all sorts of candies and food 
and we believed it was injurious. 

Q. What steps did you take to stop that practice? A. It was 
absolutely forbidden but the rule didn’t stop them from doing it. 
It was just as common as could be after an epileptic child had 
stuffed itself with bananas it would have a convulsion. The 
practice continues to the present day. 

Q. You say you are on the Committee on Diet? A. Yes, the 
dietitian on several occasions presented slips to the diet committee. 

Q. Which were schedules of proposed foods ? A. Yes, what the 
patients got on a certain date. 

Q. 1$ that passed upon officially by your committee and ap¬ 
proved ? A. By the Medical Board. 

Q. Under whose supervision and authority was the dietitian? 
A. Beally under the Committee on Diet, she and her assistant. 

Q. These diet schedules were submitted to your committee and 
approved by you? A. Yes. 

Q. And their sufficiency or insufficiency that rested upon your 
committee ? A. Yes. 

Q. And you passed it as sufficient and adequate for the needs 
of the institution in your opinion ? A. Yes. 

Dr. Meyer s testimony on page 249. 

Q. Did the children and the inmates whom you saw on your 
visits on your two years’ membership strike you as being properly 
and thoroughly nourished and well fed? A. Some of them I 
followed up from the date of commitment every time I saw them 
and some of them marvelously improved so I hardly recognized 
them as the same children. 

Acting Superintendent Flick's testimony on pages 264, 265 and 
266. 

Q. Was there any medical committee on diets which outlines the 
form of dietary observance for the inmates ?' A. There is a com¬ 
mittee for special diet but not for the general dietary which is 
fixed by the department. 

Q. Can you tell us wherein these changes consist? A. A 
better balance in the ration of the inmates is found to be advan¬ 
tageous. 


83 


Q. Give us some of the details. What did you do in the way 
of the changing of the diet in the case of the inmates under 
thirteen years of age? A. I think that the ration, that is the 
diet was balanced according to age, a bigger quantity of food to 
bigger inmates and a smaller quantity to the smaller inmates. 

Q. Prior to your coming there had there been no balancing 
of the diet ? A. I don’t know. 

Q. How do you know your arrangement worked a change ? A. 
On making a visit to different wards I saw it needed changing. 

Q. Upon what did you base that conclusion; did you think 
some of the patients were getting too little food ? A. Some of the 
bigger patients didn’t have anything left at all and the little fel¬ 
lows had a big amount to waste and inquiring of the inmates I 
found out they sent the same weight of food for the little fellows 
they did for the big ones. 

Q. So you changed that by cutting down the rations of the 
little fellows to the little fellows’ size and the little fellows’ ap¬ 
petites ? A. Yes. 

Q. Apart from this change in the amount given to the patients 
did you change the quality any? A. I changed some articles of 
diet. 

Q. Upon what do you base your action in changing the articles 
of food ? A. In a ward of feeble-minded no person eats fish, it 
is well not to give fish again because it goes to waste. 

Q. You also arranged the articles of food in accordance with 
the likes of the inmates ? A. Yes. 

Q. Are they the only dietary changes you made? A. That is 
the principal one, yes. In fact that is the only one. 

Dr. Stechmann s testimony on page 255. 

Q. Did you ever have occasion to notice the feeding of the 
inmates on the Island, the quality and the quantity of the food ? 
A. They were never fed when I was on the Island but afterwards 
I heard there was a complaint about the food and I asked a good 
many whether they were satisfied or hungry and they all said 
they were not hungry but well satisfied. 

Q. Did you come to the conclusion they were well nourished and 
sufficiently well fed ? A. I think they were. 


84 


Q. How about dietetics; do you think their food was sufficiently 
varied? A. We established a Committee on Diet, Dr. Cornwell, 
Dr. Bisch and Dr. Baehr; it was their particular office to see that 
the dietetics were proper. 

Q. Do you know how far their regulations were carried out? 
A. I understand they were carried out. 

Confidential Inspector Rice's testimony on pages 293, 294, 295 
and 296. 

Q. Tell us any of the experiences you can which you sub¬ 
sequently reported to the Department as the result of your in¬ 
spection ? A. I reported on a great many things, the method of 
handling the food supplies to the wards, feeding patients. 

Q. Can you give us any details of that? A. Under the laist 
mentioned in several of the wards I noted on various occasions 
that certain patients did not receive the allowance of food granted 
the others. 

Q. Did you make inquiry as to why there was a variation in the 
allowance ? A. I did, of several orderlies and inmates. 

Q. Was there any valid reason assigned to you for this differ¬ 
ence in allowance? A. That there simply wasn’t enough to go 
around or that the inmates didn’t eat the food anyhow. 

Q. Was there any truth in that last statement so far as you 
saw or knew? A. I frequently saw bowls of cereal which was 
uneaten by the inmates to whom it was given. 

Q. You made inquiry of no one except orderlies or inmates 
as to the variation of this food allowance? A. Ho. 

Q. Were any complaints ever made to you while an orderly 
by any inmates that they hadn’t received enough food ? A. I don’t 
recall them. 

Q. Isn’t it a fact that you never received any complaints ?' A. 
I can’t recall any. 

Q. Wouldn’t you recall it if you had? A. I might. 

Q. You recall most of the important happenings on the Island? 
A. Yes. 

Q. And you can recall no instance in which any inmate told you 
he or she did not receive enough food? A. Ho sir. 

Q. What was the general condition of cleanliness in the various 


85 


wards in which you worked as an orderly ? A. At times the 
condition of cleanliness was very bad. 

Q. In what respect ? A. The physical needs of the inmates 
were frequently unattended to with the result that faeces and other 
filth was upon the floors and bedding and so forth. 

Q. While you were an orderly in the different wards did you 
always attend to the needs of the inmates? A. The best I was 
able. 

Q. Was there always a supply of fresh linen for the beds 
which could be used as needed? A. No sir; I reported several 
times to the supervising nurse who was my superior. 

Q. And on the occasion of these complaints was fresh linen 
given you? A. No. 

Q. What report was made ? A. I was told to dry out some of 
the sheets which had been used and soiled and re-use them. 

Q. You didn’t make any answer ? A. I probably called atten¬ 
tion to the uncleanliness of it. 

Q. What is the name of the supervising nurse who gave you 
that order ? A. I can’t recall her name. I may think of it later. 

Q. You wouldn’t know whether that supervising nurse is still 
on the Island? A. I do not. 

Q. Was any reason assigned for that suggestion that you dry 
out the sheet and use it again? A. The reason assigned was 
there wasn’t enough fresh sheets. 

Dr. Peetfs testimony on pages 353 and 354. 

Q. Among these specifications or charges which in your letter 
you declare to be substantially true in your opinion was one that 
the inmates were given insufficient food; did you of your knowl¬ 
edge ever know any inmates among the children who apparently 
were not given sufficient food ? A. Yes; on my rounds in seeing 
the food prepared. 

Q. When you say insufficient food do you mean that not enough 
food was given and they asked for more ? A. The amount served 
to them and the quality of the food. 

Q. How was knowledge of that fact brought home to you; by 
a physical inspection of the amount of food and rations served? 
A. By going through the wards at the time meals were served 


86 


and going down into the diet kitchen and breaking eggs and test¬ 
ing the food in that way. 

Q. Were the dietetics or dietary prescribed by any member of 
your board ? A. I understood there was but I had nothing to do 
with that. 

Q. You don’t know whether that dietary was lived up to or 
not? A. I don’t know. 

Dr. Bainbridge’s testimony on pages 364 and 365. 

Q. You don’t know whether any restriction had been placed on 
other articles of food limiting them to that? A. I had charge of 
these cases and I knew. As to the quality of the food, at times 
it has been deplorable. I have gone over there and broken eigh¬ 
teen to twenty eggs at a time and found 50 per cent, absolutely 
rotten; I took them from different parts of the same Island. 

Q. Are these furnished by people who have contracts to supply 
them? A. I don’t know how they are furnished; I know they 
were furnished to the children to eat; I was trying to build them 
up for after care. 

Q. Did you ever make complaints on that score? A. Yes, 
repeatedly. 

Q. To whom? A. To Mrs. Dunphy and the Commissioner; I 
made it to Commissioner Keller, Commissioner Folks and then 
through the Medical Board repeated reports have been sent to 
Commissioner Drummond and to the other Commissioners. 

Q. The supplies that are brought to the Island are furnished 
through the Purchasing Department of the Island ? A. I don’t 
know; we get the medicine and the food and that is given to the 
children; if it is not up to the standard it is first up to the 
supervising nurse and then to the superintendent and if we don’t 
get it then it is up to the Commissioner. 

Q. What other foods did you find bad? A. Tainted meats, 
rancid butter, sour bread. 

Q. These articles of food whose defective quality you noticed 
were all purchased outside of the Island and brought over to the 
Island ? A. I don’t know. 

Dr. Harris’ testimony on pages 388, 389 and 395. 

Q. Another one of the specifications against the former super¬ 
intendent had to do with the so-called providing of insufficient 


87 


food to the inmates; did you have any personal knowledge of the 
fact that inmates had not enough to eat ? A. I had an inspection 
one morning with Commissioner Kingsbury and we found nine 
children at one table that didn’t have any cereal served to them. 
Early in his administration we went over there one morning and 
we didn’t find any oatmeal served. 

Q. Was there any reason assigned for that ? A. Yes, the reason 
assigned was that the children had refused it and therefore the 
attendant had gotten into the habit of not serving it at one table. 

Q. Who gave it to you? A. The attendant of that table, a 
woman attendant. 

Q. Did it appear that the superintendent knew of the failure 

to serve the cereal ?' A. I don’t know. 
********** 

Q. I would like to inquire if the children impressed you on 
your visits as being underfed ? A. They didn’t so impress me. 

Q. Didn’t they impress you as rather overfed, plump red faces, 
active and bright? A. The appearance of the children was very 
good. 

Q. Was there a regular dietary prescribed? A. Yes; it was 
gotten up by a committee of the Medical Board with the depart¬ 
mental dietitian and the dietitian on the Island. 

Dr. StowelVs testimony on pages 401 and 402. 

Q. Did you have occasion to notice whether the supply of food 
for the inmates was sufficient in quantity or not? A. Yes; I 
used to be on the Inspection Committee; I generally thought that 
there was enough ordered for the Island; for a long period there 
was such a lack of harmony between the superintendent and the 
dietitian there were frequent lapses and recriminations, but in the 
main I should say the children are well cared for and I visited a 
good many institutions and never saw better looking children than 
we had on Kandall’s Island, but these specific complaints used to 
come up from time to time but probably were no greater than are 
to be found in any other institution but certainly there was a great 
lack of co-operation in managing the diet. 

Q. Did you have any proof that the children were not properly 
cleaned or kept clean? A. I think the housekeeping arrange¬ 
ments were good; the general appearances were good. 


88 


Q. And so far as furnishing necessary toilet facilities and acces¬ 
sories were concerned you had no proof that they were insuffi¬ 
cient ? A. Occasionally when inspecting I might find some lack 
but nothing to mention. 

Q. On the whole, so far as food, physical and general clean¬ 
liness, the children were up to* the average of the children main¬ 
tained in other institutions? A. For the most part. 

Mrs. Hazard's testimony on page 408. 

Q. Did any of the children ever strike you as being under¬ 
nourished or underfed? A. No, indeed. 

Max Niklas’ testimony on page 423. 

Q. During these years of your connection with the Island did 
you ever go through the dining rooms at mealtimes ?' A. Yes. 

Q. Did you notice food left untasted and untouched by the in¬ 
mates ? A. I saw it left over. 

Q. Did you inquire whether the food was left over because of 
the improper or unappetizing way in which it had been prepared ? 
A. No. 

Q. Did you know whether cereals were left unsweetened and 
they were uneaten but when more sugar was added it was relished ? 
A. I never saw any untouched. 

Q. Was any attempt made to balance the diet, to give the 
patients the forms of food they most liked ? A. Yes sir, it has 
been. 

Q. So far as you were able to observe the quality and quantity 
of the food seemed to be satisfactory to the inmates ? A. Quite 
sufficient in every way. 

Mrs. Dunphy’s testimony on pages 481 and 482. 

Q. Under whose supervision was the regulation of the dietary ? 
A. Under the dietitian who got her instructions from the depart¬ 
mental dietitian. 

Q. What do you mean by the departmental dietitian ?' A. For 
all the institutions on the Island and the different institutions of 
the Department of Charities. 


89 


Q. Was the food furnished to your inmates such as prescribed 
by this departmental dietitian ? A. It was; I visited frequently 
to see. 

Q. Did you on such visits take any steps to determine the 
quality and nature of the food furnished to the inmates. A. I 
have spoken on one or two occasions to the dietitian that I thought 
the older children should have more substantial food for dinner 
and not so much stew and soups. 

Q. So far as you are able to tell from the general appearance 
were the inmates well nourished, A. Yes. 

Q. Did you on the occasion of any of your visits to the Island 
observe that the inmates did not touch their food ? A. Sometimes 
they would not eat their cereals. 

Q. Did you ever inquire of your dietitian on the Island or any¬ 
body on the Island in charge of the kitchen as to the reasons for the 
inmates not eating their cereals ? A. That would be occasionally 
that an inmate would refuse. 

Q. There was no steady refusal of the cereals by an inmate but 
an occasional refusal ? A. Absolutely. 

Copy of letter from Dietitian Ilallock, pages 508 and 509, 

placed in evidence by Mrs. Dunphy: 

“ Mrs. M. C. Dunphy, Superintendent: 

“ My Dear Mrs. Dunphy. — In reading the New York 
Times I see that the Commissioner has brought against you 
the charge that the children on Randall’s Island were under¬ 
fed during the past year. As I was dietitian at that time I 
wish to say that this statement is absolutely untrue. 

“ Cereal was always served for the children’s breakfast. Of 
course this did not guarantee its being eaten, but it was 
always to be had provided the children would eat it. 

“ It would seem to me that the quality of the food was up 
to the commissioners as they provide the food inspectors — 
and there was no list of specifications available for those re¬ 
ceiving the food supply. 

“ The quality of the food prepared was the best possible 
with available material. One would hardly expect hotel fare 
on the material provided by the Department for the inmates. 
The food was well cooked and seasoned, at no time were the 
children obliged to go hungry because of insufficient food 
supply. 


90 


If there was inadequate supervision over the distribution 
of the food — I would ask the Commissioner to consider that 
thirty-three (33) ward dining rooms, six employee dining 
rooms and three (3) kitchens scattered over an area of about 
a square mile, is considerable ground to be covered by a 
dietitian, an assistant and pupil just at the time when super¬ 
vision is most necessary. 

“ Trusting that these statements may be of some use to you, 
I am, 

“ Yours sincerely, 

“ SARAH H. HADDOCK, 

“Dietitian at Randall’s Island — March, 1914 to Jan. 1, 
1915.” 

Fifth. Testimony With Relation to the Alleged Failure 
to Wash Children and to Provide Toilet Paper 

Deputy Commissioner Wright's testimony on pages 18, 28 
and 29. 

Q. The immediate management, the medical treatment, general 
living conditions, disciplinary treatment of the inmates, so far as 
their daily routine of life is concerned? A. I have had charge 
of the medication and supervision of the feeding and would advise 
with regard to these matters. 

*********** 

Q. Can you recall at this moment any specific instance in any 
building where you found by personal observation conditions to 
exist which were contrary to the best care of these children at any 
time in any building during the past fifteen months ? A. I don’t 
recall specific instances. 

Q. You don’t recall any specific instances? A. Ho. 

Q. Mr. Wright, your experience leads you to the conclusion 
that the feeble-minded are sometimes quite difficult to manage? 
A. I have had no personal experience, I have had no personal ex¬ 
perience in the management of the feeble-minded. 

Acting Superintendent Flick's testimony on pages 275 and 276. 

Q. Do you personally look after or cause to be looked after the 
looking after or regulation of washing children before breakfast? 
A. That would be a physical impossibility to see to it, but I see 
once in a while that the rule is enforced. 


91 


Q. How do you see to it ? A. By visiting all the wards every 
once in a while. There are about fifty-nine wards. 

Q. It is quite obvious you could not visit them all before break¬ 
fast on any one morning? A. Yes. 

Q. How many inmates on the Island have you at present ? 
A. 2,049. 

Q. Do you think you have sufficient facilities properly for car¬ 
ing for so many children ? A. I think the children are pretty 
well cared for. 

Q. Do you think in the way of space you have proper accommo¬ 
dation for the children or do you think it is over-crowded? A. 
It is not ideal but it is sufficient. 

Dr. Carlos F. MacDonald's testimony on pages 304 and 305. 

Q. Doctor, do you remember approximately the time of that 
visit? A. Yes, sir, June 16, 1914. 

Q. On that occasion did you make a thorough inspection of that 
part of the Island devoted to the atypical children? A. I made 
what I regarded a thorough inspection as much as I was able. 

Q. Did you direct that inspection to any particular feature of 
the hospitals there or to general conditions? A. It was limited 
to that part of the hospitals devoted to mental defectives and I 
made a general inspection covering—I have my notes of inspection 
here with me, I think; yes, I have a copy of my notes of inspec¬ 
tion dated June 16, 1914. The inspection included an examina¬ 
tion of the kitchens, dining rooms, workshops, school rooms and 
hospital wards. The institution was in a condition of cleanliness 
and good order, especially so in view of the antiquated and di¬ 
lapidated character of the buildings. The buildings are old and 
unsuited for the purpose. The buildings which I examined, the 
rooms and so forth, were in a very good state of order as to cleanli¬ 
ness. The inmates were neat and tidy in appearance as a rule and 
gave every indication of being well and carefully taken care of. 
The food supplies were good in quality and sufficient in quantity. 
The hospital wards were in a cleanly and orderly state and the 
patients there as regards clothing, bedding, dietary, nursing and 
medical care impressed me as being well and carefully attended 
to. My visit was made without previous notice to the superin- 


92 


tendent who accompanied me on my tour of inspection. Dr. 
Cornwell went over there and was with me a part of the time I 
was there. 

Dr. Bainbridge’s testimony on pages 366, 367 and 371. 

Q. That gentleman is no longer connected with the depart¬ 
ment as secretary ? A. I think he is. The practice of washing 
children before breakfast was habitually disregarded; that was so 
much in view in the past I signed it believing it to be true. I 
haven't seen it in the last year or two. But it was so, when they 
got washed at all. Specification second, number A, that children 
with infectious diseases were permitted to eat in the same dining 
room with the others; that is so. 

Q. How long has that condition prevailed? A. Since I was 
appointed to the Island; at times it would be better, especially 
after inspection. 

Q. More recently, within the last year and a half? A. Yes; 
that has been better. 

********** 

Q. When was all this? A. 1899 to 1902; I am speaking of 
these times because they are parallel to the particular charges 
brought at this time. 

Q. Were these charges made against Mrs. Dunphy at that time? 
A. In the first place against these seventy attaches and employees 
on the Island and in every instance she defended them. After, 
however, Mr. Folks went out a good many were quietly brought 
back to the Island. 

Q. Commissioner Folks didn’t remove her? A. FTo. 

Mrs. Dunphy’s testimony on page 510. 

Q. Do you know whether children were washed before break¬ 
fast? A. Yes; because I have gone there as early as five o’clock 
in the morning occasionally. 

Q. Any affidavits to the contrary notwithstanding? A. Any 
affidavits to the contrary notwithstanding and I have seen the 
children, and it was the duty of the night nurse to see that the 
children were washed; their hands were always washed after 
breakfast also. 


93 


Sixth. Testimony with Relation to Alleged Failure to 

Separate the Feeble-Minded From the Mentally Nor¬ 
mal Children 

Inspector Park's testimony on page 196. 

Q. Did mentally normal children mingle and have contact with 
the low grade mental defectives on the Island ? A. Not low grade. 
You would see a group of children playing together and it would 
be hard to say whether they were normal or border line cases. 

Dr. Cornwell's testimony on page 229. 

Q. Was there so far as you know a complete separation of the 
typical from the atypical inmates ? A. As far as I know there was 
in so far as it was possible under the conditions; we had a band 
on the Island; it had atypical as well as typical inmates in it. 

Q. To what extent, limited or otherwise, was intercommunica¬ 
tion between the typical and the atypical permitted? A. To a 
limited extent. I don’t think they came together much. They 
had separate houses and facilities. 

Reference is also made to Dr. Schlapp's testimony on page 70. 

Seventh. Testimony with Relation to the Alleged use by 
Employees of the Clothing of Inmates 

Mrs. Dunphy's testimony on pages 483 and 484. 

Q. Did you ever see or discover any inmates — any attendants 
on the Island appropriating any wearing apparel of the inmates ? 
A. I never saw them; it was reported to me that some of the 
men had appropriated some clothes belonging to the inmates and 
I investigated it and had an order posted up in the dining rooms 
that any employee found wearing any of the inmates’ clothes would 
be immediately recommended for dismissal. 

Q. Did you actually discover that clothing had been taken by 
the orderlies or other employees? A. No; it was reported to me 
by the steward. 

Q. Weren’t you able to verify the report ? A. I took his word 
for it; I didn’t see it myself. 


94 


Eighth. Testimony With Relation to the Alleged Failure 

to Safe-Guard Inmates From Fire and Violation of Rules 

by Watchmen, Through Failure to Make Their Required 
Rounds 

Deputy Commissioner Wright’s testimony on page 16b. 

Q. Are you equipped with proper means of egress in case of 
fire or other emergency ? A. Some are not; part are already put 
in such condition. 

Q. What means are being taken to put them in this condition ? 
A. In the main cross section fire walls are brought through the 
building so as to he able to push the patients through from one 
section into another section and large rollers are put in so beds 
can he pushed through into another section. 

Q. Are these buildings equipped with ready means of escape 
in case of fire other than these fire proof cross' section walls ? A. 
Practically all of them have the Kirker-Bender fire escapes and 
most of the others have balconies with stairs. 

Dr. Boohs 9 testimony on page 131. 

Q. What building did you refer to as being had ? A. The one 
for the low grade male patients, idiots. 

Q. Tell us what is the matter with it ? A. It is not sanitary; 
it is not hygienic; it is a firetrap. 

Q. That condition has existed since the present administration 
of city charities? A. The building was put up in 1830 I think. 

Dr. Bainbridge’s testimony on page 368. 

Q. I understand your answer to be that in your sixteen years 
of connection with the Island you never have seen a fire drill; 
you wouldn’t go so far as to say none had been made in that 
period ? A. I have not; certainly not; I have known of none. 

Q. Did you ever ask the superintendent for the date of the fire 
drill ? A. I didn’t ask for the date hut it looked strange that we 
didn’t have any and when I remarked it she always said you 
didn’t happen to he there just at the time. That the night watch¬ 
man violated the rules of the Department, that is true. 

Q. How long did that evil continue to exist ? A. Off and on 
for sixteen years. 


95 


Q. So far as that particular defect is concerned do you know 
whether it continues on the Island ? A. I don’t know personally; 
it was true the early part and last of 1913. I haven’t been up 
there at night lately hut for many years that was true. 

Dr. Harris testimony on page 390. 

Q. Had you any knowledge of whether proper precautions were 
taken to adopt fire drills and proper regulations for fire protec¬ 
tion ? A. Ho, I don’t know about that. 

Q. So that as to most of the specifications contained in the 
charges against the former superintendent you had no personal 
knowledge ? A. That is right. 

Max Niklas’ testimony on pages 421 and 422. 

Q. During your years on the Island, since 1903, were the fire 
drills regularly had ? A. Every week. 

Q. Under whose supervision? A. Under the Chief Engineer, 
Mr. Sargent, and then the National Fire Protection Company had 
weekly events. 

Mrs. Dunphy s testimony on pages 484 and 485. 

Q. Did you hold fire drills or cause fire drills to be held on the 
Island ? A. Regularly every week. 

Q. Under whose supervision ? A. Under Mr. Ross. 

Q. Who was he ? A. He was some man engaged by the Com¬ 
missioner. 

Q. For the purpose of supervising the fire drills ? A. For the 
purpose of supervising the fire drills. Then by the Croker Fire 
Department; previous to that time we held it under Mr. Sargent, 
fifteen years. 

Q. How often? A. Once a week. 

Q. During all the years of your superintendency? A. They 
were always held. 

Q. Do your records show they were held regularly during the 
period of your superintendency? A. Until the first of January, 
1915, and then they were discontinued by the company but I was 
never notified they were discontinued. The Croker Fire Drill 
record is kept by the company and they simply repCrt to us by 
letter. 


96 


The Educational Work of the Institutions 

Commissioner John A. Kingsbury's testimony on pages 147, 
148 and 149. 

Q. Who makes appointments of teachers!? A. The Commis¬ 
sioner of Charities on the recommendation of the educational au¬ 
thorities. 

Q. Must the teachers in that school hold the same grade certifi¬ 
cate and credentials as those appointed to the regular school sys 1 - 
tem of the city ? A. I think they are supposed to; I don’t recall 
just what the requirements are. 

Q. How long has that been the rule? A. May have been be¬ 
fore 1902, the charter makes some stipulation in regard to that — 
the educational authorities for some reason or other I understand 
have not been able to get certified teachers to go there hut have 
been obliged to take what they could get; it doesn’t apply to those 
there before 1903, or 1902. 

Q. Do you think yourself qualified to pass upon the merits 
of the school? A. I do. 

Q. Is it up to par in your opinion ? A. I have not made a 
personal inspection of it closely enough to pass any opinion upon 
it. What I have seen and has been reported there are conditions 
that would lead me to believe it is not. 

Q. Did you delegate the power of supervising that teaching 
staff to any subordinates in your department? A. Hot except in 
a general way; the inspector checked up the attendance at the 
school and if I recall correctly the reports may show that the chil¬ 
dren were frequently rotated in the classes and education didn’t 
extend to a considerable number. 

Q. Isn’t it a fact that visits are made by the Board of Educa¬ 
tion ? A. I presume so. 

Q. Do you receive copies of the reports? A. Hever. 

Q. Have you made inquiry as to the existence of such reports ? 
A. Ho. 

Q. Have you spoken with anybody with reference to this 
school? A. Yes; Miss Farrell. 

Q. Who is Miss Farrell? A. She had charge of the education 
of the atypical children in the schools, the backward children; I 


97 


have talked with her and as a matter of fact she is to make a study 
of the work for me now or is rather making a report. 

Q. Has she indicated yet what she considers the conditions of 
the teaching corps over there ? A. In a general way from what 
she has said to me it would indicate she considered it very weak 
and inadequate. I would be glad to furnish you with Miss Far¬ 
rell’s report. 

Mrs. Hazard's testimony on page 411. 

By Mr. Cotton: 

Q. Do you wish to give the impression that the teaching on 
Bandall s Island has been admirable teaching and the teachers 
efficient in the work ? A. Decidedly. 

Q. Have you had occasion to be on the Island since the 8th of 
March ? A. Yes, frequently. 

Miss Johnson's testimony on pages 424, 425, 426 and 427. 

Q. Miss Johnson, you are a member of the Hew York City 
Visiting Committee of the State Charities Aid Association ? A. 
I am. 

Q. As a part of your Committee work did you make any visits 
to Randall’s Island in the last two years ? A. I have made only 
three visits in the last two years. 

Q. Prior to the last two years had you made visits to Randall’s 
Island ? A. I think on the average of ten a year in the preceding 
five years that would be like it. 

Q. So you made for the five years prior to 1914 fifty visits and 
in the years 1914 and 1915 you made three visits? A. I was out 
of the country. 

Q. Were those visits directed to any particular feature of in¬ 
stitutional work on Randall’s Island ? A. I began by visiting the 
children, in the crippled wards and became very much interested 
in their occupation because of the apparent absolute idleness in 
which they spent their time in the wards. I was then interested 
in the schools and came to the conclusion that the schooling was 
inadequate and then I became interested in the feeble-minded 
children and so my interest became general in the wards. 

4 


98 


Q. As a result of your visits and what you observed are you 
prepared to give an opinion as to the adequacy or inadequacy,, 
the sufficiency or insufficiency of the school system and its results 
on Kandall’s Island? A. It seemed to me inadequate and done 
by unskilled people as a rule, and the subjects not well chosen, 
not carefully chosen handwork and not enough, not sufficient to 
keep them occupied; many could not progress very far hut could 
be taught simple things, hut those simple things were not taught 
to children of the lower grades as they are in other places; the 
children of the lower grades who didn’t respond quickly were not 
taught at all and some buildings which could be used for training 
were not so used; the gymnasium was used only for band practice 
when I went there first; now, I believe, some very good work is 
done there, hut there seems to he that attitude with the lower 
grade children; they do not train quickly and the training was 
given to those where the response would be made quickly. 

Q. Were these children in the classes you observed feeble¬ 
minded or normal? A. At first normal children in the public 
school. 

Q. In the normal schools the response was fairly satisfactory ? 
A. In any case the teaching was not adequate. 

Q. Are you positive and state of your own knowledge that the 
appointment of teachers is made by the Superintendent on the 
Island ? A. I am not positive. 

Q. Suppose it is shown that the appointments are made by the 
Commissioner would you lay the blame for the unsatisfactory con¬ 
dition of the teaching staff at the Commissioner’s door? A. I 
think I should lay most of the blame at the door of the supervising 
officer. 

Q. Who appointed these teachers? A. So far as I know, by 
the superintendent, and later they had to have a certain license 
or recognition from the Board of Education. 

Q. Was this requirement for a license in effect when you first 
visited the Island ? A. I think so. 

Q. So these teachers bear recommendations in some certified 
form from the Board of Education? A. Ho; because many 
teachers have been there many years before that. 

Q. Have you done any personal educational work ?' A. I have 


99 


done tutoring and taught in a private school and I have been a 
salaried school teacher before coming to New York. 

Q. Did you ever inquire whether the appointments of these 
teachers proceeded from the Commissioner of the Department him¬ 
self ? A. No; I don’t remember. 

James Lee , M. D., Superintendent of Schools, Board of Educa¬ 
tion, New York City; excerpts from letter and copy of official 
reports submitted in evidence, page 431. 

June 8, 1915. 

“ I could not add anything to the reports which I made on my 
examination of the schools under the supervision of Mrs. Dunphy. 
These reports are on file in the office of the City Superintendent of 
Schools. These reports show every evidence of superior super¬ 
vision on her part. I made very thorough examinations of every 
class in the schools, saw the industrial work and have only words 
of commendation of the work which she did. During every visit 
every possible courtesy was shown by her in the examination and 
inspections.” 

“ Yours very truly, 

(Signed) “ JAMES LEE, M. D., 

ce District Superintendent of SchoolsN 


The following are copies of the reports referred to by District 
Superintendent Lee, together with a copy of a report by Principal 
Kornmann: 

" May 1 , 1912. 

“ General. 

“ Excellent skill and judgment shown by the superin¬ 
tendent in discovering individual capabilities and cultivating 
the same and wherever concentration can be applied, it is fully 
utilized. The practical and communal work is carried out 
to the highest degree. In every possible case where the ability 
of the inmates will permit the supplies and repairs for the 
entire department are made. Domestic and industrial work 
a strong feature throughout. Economy is practically shown 
in utilizing discarded pieces of property, the work in this 



100 


regard being continued as was noted in my previous report. 
The close, careful and sympathetic interest of the superin¬ 
tendent and her assistants deserve special commendation. I 
can add little to what I have already stated in my last report. 
I would like, however, to emphasize particularly the neatness 
and cleanliness of the children, the various rooms; in fact*, 
everything connected with the surroundings of the children 
and other inmates. Every courtesy was. shown by the superin¬ 
tendent to give me full opportunity to inspect, examine and 
pass upon the work of herself and her assistants. The 
management and results obtained throughout are entirely 
satisfactory. 

“ JAMES LEE, 

" District Superintendent of Public Schools ’’ 


u September 16, 1913. 

“ General. 

“ The work in the School for Feeble-Minded is well diversi¬ 
fied, the physical side and handwork being well planned and 
executed. A band organized from the inmates plays for phys¬ 
ical exercises. Here as in all classes examined much indi¬ 
vidual attention must be and is freely given. A new and 
well constructed building has been erected for the Industrial 
Department. The improvement has added much to the com¬ 
fort and the facilities of the institution. The products of this 
school are used by the people and in various other divisions 
of the Department of Charities. Last year over 83,000 pieces 
were made for the inmates, 33,000 being garments for boys 
and girls, the balance bedding, sheets, shoes, mats, baskets 
and other useful articles too numerous to mention. Many 
articles repaired by classes in indicated industries. Twenty 
carpenters alone could be employed to do the work accom¬ 
plished by the inmates. Every courtesy and opportunity to 
see and examine the details of the work of this institution 
were extended to me. 

“ The teachers with a single exception showed hearty in¬ 
terest in the difficult and uninviting work. To succeed 
really requires the missionary spirit. Suggestions looking 
toward improvement in methods were generally adopted. 

“ The Superintendent, Mrs. Dunphy, is mistress of every 
detail of the work. It requires a master mind such as she 
possesses to direct the varied work of such an institution. 
Vigilance day and night on her part is required. Her in¬ 
fluence is seen throughout.” 



101 


From Principal Kornmann: 

“ Depaetment of Education, 

“ Office of the Peincipal of Public School ISTo. 12, 

“ Boeough of Manhattan, 

“March 25, 1914. 

u B'e. William H. Maxwell, City Superintendent of 
Schools: 

“ Deae Sib.— I beg to submit the following report on my 
visit to Randall's Island on March 13, 1913. 

“ Mrs. Dunphy, the superintendent, was most kind and 
courteous and gave generously of her time that we might see 
as much as possible of all the various aspects of the work. 

“ The institution is remarkably well organized and the air 
of physical well being and content, manifested hy the children, 
is striking, as is also the quiet orderliness and spirit of work 
which is evidently the result of a firm but. kind discipline. 

“ In the classrooms, we found the children so graded and 
grouped, that each was being developed along the lines, and 
as far as his particular mental equipment warranted. There 
was naturally much emphasis upon manual work. 

“ The Industrial School is especially interesting, for here 
the feeble-minded children are trained under competent 
teachers to do, and to do well, all sorts of useful manual work. 
The cobbling, tailoring, chair caning, carpentering, garment 
making, embroidering, etc., done here would be very credit¬ 
able to normal individuals. 

“ Content through useful occupation suited to the indi¬ 
vidual capacity of each person seems to be the keynote of the 
institution. Even the crippled and hopelessly deformed look 
happy over the embroidery or other handwork they do under 
the supervision of a crippled girl, who came as a patient to 
the institution, and has been trained there. 

“ Everywhere in the school rooms, dining-rooms, dormi¬ 
tories, lavatories, hospital wards, a spotless cleanliness greets 
the eye — all the result of the labor of the pupils trying to 
outdo each other in a spirit of friendly rivalry. 

“ But it is not all work — there is plenty of wholesome 
play, too. There is a fine gymnasium where games are played 
and marching and exercising done to the music of a brass 
band composed of the pupils ; and the girls execute folk and 
modern dances beautifully. Out doors play grounds, ball 
grounds, etc., are also provided. 

u Altogether, I was delighted with what I saw, and feel 
that Mrs. Dunphy is to be heartily congratulated upon the 
splendid results of her efforts, and that the children ailing in 


102 


mind or body, who find an asylum under her competent 
management are fortunate. 

“ We spent some time in the House of Refuge, visiting the 
class-rooms, dormitories, dining-rooms, shops, etc., and seeing 
the military drill and setting-up exercises on the parade 
ground which were wonderfully well done. 

“ Respectfully submitted, 

“ (Signed) ELISE N. KORNMANH, 

“Prin” 


Erom District Superintendent Lee: 

“ General 

“ The work throughout the various schools is well planned and 
each individual is placed where the best can be done for him, 
mentally and physically. Inside and outside work is so arranged 
that there is ample diversity and an opportunity to build up what¬ 
ever is best in the boys and girls in this institution. Various 
industries are better housed than at my last visit. The Super¬ 
intendent has shown remarkable executive ability in arranging the 
program and unifying the work in every department. Since my 
last visit I am pleased to report a strong attempt to utilize free 
muscular movement in writing; group work is a feature through¬ 
out; special efforts have been made in sense training and articu¬ 
lation; girls are taught cooking; music has been utilized in the 
effort to elevate the unfortunates; physical exercises throughout 
are spirited and fruitful in their results. A reference to the re¬ 
port of the Industrial School, December 31, 1913, shows remark¬ 
able results in the various departments, ideal application of voca¬ 
tional work as many of the articles made and prepared are used in 
the wards, school, halls and for miscellaneous purposes. 

“ The teachers throughout show interest in their work which 
is indeed very trying and which requires peculiar ability because 
of the character of children committed to their care. 

“ Mrs. Dunphy has a thorough knowledge of the conditions and 
adopts every possible suggestion looking towards the betterment 
of methods of instruction and discipline. 

“ A large section of ground has been set aside through Mrs. 
Dunphy’s efforts for garden purposes. Each pupil has an oppor- 


103 


tunity to cultivate a portion of the ground. This adds to the 
attractiveness of the place and gives much pleasure to the children 
who take part. 

“ The law referring to sectarian instruction seems to have been 
satisfactorily observed. 

(Signed) JAMES LEE, M. D., 
“District Superintendent of Public Schools. 
“Hew York, June 30, 1914.” 

The Serious Evils at the City Institutions on Randall’s 

Island 

That some serious evils have long existed at the Hew York 
City Hospitals and Schools at Randall’s Island is a fact within 
the knowledge of this Board. The two most serious evils are the 
employment of unfit persons as hospital helpers or attendants and 
the congestion of population which exists in parts of the institu¬ 
tion. Both of these evils have in recent years been aggravated by 
the presence of a considerable number of mentally defective de¬ 
linquents for whose care these institutions are neither intended 
nor equipped. 

Year after year the State Board of Charities has brought these 
conditions to the attention of the Hew York City authorities 
through the medium of its annual reports to the Legislature as 
well as in the special reports following the visits and inquiries 
of the Board’s Inspectors. 

From the State Board’s Report for 1913 

With relation to these evils the State Board’s report trans¬ 
mitted to the Legislature on March 16, 1914, made the following 
statement: 

“At the Children’s Hospitals, Asylums and Schools at 
Randall’s Island, which have for years been wonderfully well 
conducted, despite great disadvantages in the way of inade- 
quate facilities and poor help, reform® by which the exten¬ 
sion of facilities and more and better paid help can be secured 
are greatly needed. 

“ There is probably in the whole city of Hew York no site 
which is more salubrious or more generally accessible for the 


104 


car© of sick children than Randall’s Island. Within almost a 
stone’s throw of the Boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx and 
Queens, where the bulk of Row York City’s population will 
shortly be, and far removed from the care of the adult poor 
of the city, it enjoys unusual advantages for the care of sick 
children. It has been for years’ such an elementary principle 
of poor-law reform that children should not be brought into 
contact with the adult poor, that the suggestion recently ad¬ 
vanced that a great children’s hospital should be constructed 
on Blackwell’s Island in close proximity to the City Home 
or almshouse, can hardly be taken seriously. The same view 
must also he taken of the recommendation that periodical 
drinkers should be retained in the hospital helper service be¬ 
cause the city has no suitable place wherein to confine drunk¬ 
ards at present, and of the further suggestion that it would 
serve no useful purpose to give better compensation to the 
hospital helpers than the present low wages which are greatly 
below the prevailing rates. This is particularly true with 
relation to Randall’s Island where over nineteen hundred 
young children are cared for, and where the presence of in¬ 
temperate men and women employees is highly undesirable. 
The pay roll of this branch of the service does not seem at 
all to bear out the assertion that the changes in the lower 
grades of the service have been but a little more frequent than 
those in the better paying grades, and this is no doubt true 
of other branches of the- work. This is shown by the follow¬ 
ing table of statistics for the year 1913: 

u Tables Showing Changes in Hospital Helpers at the 
Hew York City Children’s Hospitals and Schools, 
Randall’s Island, Hew York, During the Year 1913 


Both Sexes 


Annual Compensation 

Total 

employed 

Number of 
changes 

Per cent 
of change 

Per cent 
of total 
number 
employed 

Per cent 
of total 
change 

$120. 

91 

379 

416 

23.7 

36.9 

150. 

136 

428 

314 

35.4 

41.7 

180. 

16 

52 

325 

4.1 

5.1 

216. 

8 

3 

37 

2.1 

.3 

240. 

71 

114 

160 

18.5 

11. 

264. 

1 



3 


300. 

35 

21 

60 

9.1 

2. 

360. 

8 

13 

162 

2.1 

1.3 

420. 

7 

10 

143 

1.8 

1. 

480. 

9 

7 

77 

2.4 

.7 

600. 

2 



.5 








Totals. 

384 

1,027 

267 

100 

100 






























105 


“ There is no doubt but that with increased means a, better 
and more discriminating service could be introduced through¬ 
out the entire public charitable work of the city, which would 
tend to weed out and repress the imposition of would-be 
beneficiaries of the system, but there is nothing that will ever 
take the place of the expenditure of the means necessary to 
extend the facilities of the institutions, and to fill the places 
with a more satisfactory and in the end more economical class 
of employees’, than the present graduates of the city’s public 
charitable and correctional institutions.” 


From the State Board’s Report for 1914 

The State Board’s report transmitted to the Legislature Febru¬ 
ary 15, 1915, contained the following statement on this subject: 

“ The principal needs of the public charitable institutions 
of the city are now and have been for many years greatly en¬ 
larged facilities' for the care of inmates and better compensa¬ 
tion for employees in the lower grades of the service. Little 
has been done during the year to improve the pay of the hos¬ 
pital helpers in order that a better grade of employees may 
be secured. While some changes have been made in rates of 
compensation, especially in the higher grades, the proportion 
of those receiving inadequate compensation remains practi¬ 
cally the same. This condition is most serious in the New 
York City Children’s Hospitals and Schools, Randall’s Island, 
the Metropolitan Hospital, Blackwell’s Island, and the City 
Hospital, Blackwell’s Island, because in these institutions 
poorly paid helpers of a low grade are numerous and are in 
some instances charged with important responsibilities includ¬ 
ing the care of children. A reasonable minimum compen¬ 
sation for hospital helpers should be at least $20 a month for 
men and $15 a month for women. Assuming this basis we 
find that, at the three institutions named, more than 65 per 
cent, of the men and nearly 50 per cent, of the women hospi¬ 
tal helpers are receiving less than this minimum. At Ran¬ 
dall’s Island 65 per cent, of the male hospital helpers receive 
the very low wages of $10 a month. Not only does this low 
rate of compensation prevent the employment of persons hav¬ 
ing qualifications desired, hut the frequent changes inter¬ 
fere greatly with the efficiency of the service. That the num¬ 
ber of changes corresponds in a general way to the smallne&s 
of the wages paid is shown by the following table: 


106 


“ Table Showing Changes in Hospital Helpers at the Hew 
York City Children’s Hospitals and Schools, Randall’s 
Island, Hew York, During tile Year 1914 


Annual Compensation 

Total 

employed 

Number of 
changes in 
each grade 

Per cent 
of change 

Per cent in 
each grade 
of total 
number 
employed 

Per cent 
of total 
change by 
grades 

$120, men only. 

91 

322 

353.8 

23.7 

34.8 

150, women only. 

138 

416 

301.4 

36. 

45. 

180, men and women. 1 

16 

63 

393.7 

4.2 

6.8 

216, women only. 

8 

2 

25 

2.1 


240, men and women. 

69 

82 

118.8 

18. 

8.9 

264, women only. 

1 

0 

0 . 

.2 

0 . 

300, men and women. 

30 

14 

46.6 

7.8 

1.5 

360, men and women. 

10 

8 

80 

2.6 

0.9 

420, men and women. 

5 

8 

160 

1.3 

0.9 

480, men and women. 

14 

9 

64.3 

3.6 

1 . 

600, men only. 

2 

0 

0 . 

.5 

0 . 



Totab. 

384 

924 

240.6 

100 

100 


Inspector Dinwiddle s testimony on pages 8, 9 and 10. 

Q. What was the lowest grade of salary received ? A. One 
hundred and twenty dollars per year. 

Q. To whom was that salary paid? A. As I recollect it was 
paid to night watches, men who had comparatively no responsibil¬ 
ity but to see that things were kept quiet at night and to stay in 
the wards where the boys were sleeping. 

Q. Did they have to go through the wards and watch the in¬ 
mates at night ? A. The only people who went through the wards 
at night were the $600 trained nurses. 

Q. How many nurses are there to a ward of that class? A. 
There were two supervising nurses to cover the rounds at various 
periods during the night. I think the period was an hour apart. 
They are supposed to make rounds through every building where 
the children were. 

Q. Did you as a general inspector of the Department make in¬ 
quiry of the total number of employees who received $120 per 
year as their wage ? A. I had that statement before me. I can’t 
say offhand just how many there were. 

Q. The report that was made to us as to conditions on the 30th 
of September showed that there were ninety-one of them. From 
your investigation of conditions on the Island, do you believe that 
you can get competent help at $120 per year ? A. Hot responsible 
people. 






























107 


Q. For positions that were filled by people who received that 
salary? A. Not usually. 

Q. In the cases in which it is claimed that inmates of the Island 
had been brutally or inhumanely treated, did the charges generally 
run against the lower salaried employees ? A. No. Most of the 
charges, I think, were not against any one individual or against 
the $480 men. 

Q. What, if anything, do you know has been done to remedy the 
conditions of employment on the Island so as to secure a better 
class of help? A. An effort has been made to raise the general 
average of salaries. The living quarters have been improved 
somewhat and encouragement has been given to the deserving men 
that they will he, as they show capacity for responsibility and dis¬ 
position for kindly care of the inmates, they would be given an 
opportunity to advance themselves. 

Q. Did you make inquiry at the time you made the investiga¬ 
tion as to where these $120 employees were obtained ? Where did 
they come from ? A. They apply at the institution, many of them. 
Some of them are employees that had been there and come hack 
again, and, I think that covers the ‘major part of them. 

Q. Are references exacted from them or are their antecedents 
looked into before giving them employment ? A. My impression 
in one particular case that I had in mind was that there was not 
a very careful examination made. 

Q. As a matter of fact, isn’t it true that in many instances these 
$120 employees were procured from the Municipal Lodging 
House? A. Not to my knowledge. I know they get some unpaid 
help that goes up from the Municipal Lodging House. They work 
upon the grounds of the institution. It might be possible that 
after a certain period of service there might be found some deserv¬ 
ing men among them. 

Q. Do you know liow far the number of employees on the Island 
has been reduced ? A. I have been told that about fifty or sixty 
less in number. 

Q. Llave any stations that require to he guarded been left un¬ 
guarded by virtue of this reduction in the number of employees ? 
A. Not to my knowledge. 


108 


Deputy Commissioner Wright's testimony on pages 29 and 31. 

Q. You have in employ there, under this article of care and 
management, a number of what you would call attendants, do you 
not, male and female? A. Yes, both. 

Q. About how many do you recall ? A. I know the general 
number all told in the institution, I can’t tell the number of 
ordinary attendants. 

Q. Two or three hundred? A. Oh, no, not that number of 
attendants. 

Q. Is there a hundred ? A. I should want to look at the records; 
there are approximately 350 hospital helpers; they attend to a 

variety of work besides that of attendants. 
******** ** 

Q. Has it occurred to you during the past fifteen months that 
that was a weak spot in the conduct and care of children at 
Randall’s Island, the insufficient appropriations to pay the help 
for the care of the children ? A. Yes. 

Q. If a larger appropriation was made a better wage would 
be paid to the men and women who come immediately in contact 
with the children, and that would raise the standard, would it 
not ? A. Decidedly. 

Q. You have considered that as a serious question? A. Yes. 

Commissioner Kingsbury's testimony on pages 102, 103, 105, 
111, 137 and 138. 

Q. You have undoubtedly noticed that the employment of this 
cheap labor was also a serious defect, did you not? A. Yes, and 
that is not all the answer; I noticed the employment of more low 
paid people than was necessary was a serious defect instead of 
paying fewer people more money. 

Q. The employment of persons at $120 a year was a serious 
defect, was it not, and one that was not for the best interests of 
the institution ? A. Certainly. 

Q. And of course you became aware of the very many changes 
in that employment, sometimes 200 a month of discharges and dis¬ 
missals for intoxication. You became aware of that, I suppose? 
A. I did. 


109 


Q. The report of the State Board of Charities for 1913 to the 
State Legislature, and of course I suppose you have a copy, re¬ 
ported that there were 379 changes in the person© employed at 
$120 a year and 428 changes in the persons employed at $150 a 
year; did the fact that there was such a tremendous rate of 
changes appeal to you as showing there was 1 something wrong 
about that condition ? A. Certainly. 

Q. What was done, if anything, to remedy that? A. A letter 
was sent to the superintendent very early in the year, all the 
superintendents, calling attention to the results of inquiries of the 
Committee on Hospitals of the Board of Estimate and Appor¬ 
tionment in which there had been a careful study of hospital 
helpers made and for which recommendations had been made for 
gradually improving that condition. The superintendents were 
advised to get their employees on the basis where they could be 
liable to promotion and use fewer employees and pay them better. 
********** 

Q. Do you or do you not know, Mr. Kingsbury, for several 
years last past, the State Board of Charities have recommended 
strongly several improvements at Randall’s Island, consisting 
first of good sleeping accommodations for helpers and the em¬ 
ployment of a better class of helpers and the payment of better 
wages and screens for all the buildings for flies; do you recall 
that we have recommended that? A. I think I recall all those 
recommendations. 

Q. And if I am correctly informed that seems to be a complaint 
of the near past as far as your office is concerned. A. I don’t 
understand you. 

Q. I think Mr. Dinwiddie testified that was one of the seri¬ 
ous things over there that they had discovered by his investiga¬ 
tion. A. I don’t know as anybody has reported that as a dis¬ 
covery; I think everyone of us knew that. 
******* **** 

Q. Each ward or separate building is in charge of a head 
nurse? A. Yes. 

Q. How many head nurse© have you there? A. I can’t tell. 

Q. Do you think thirteen head nurses could adequately bring 


110 


themselves into contact personally with two thousand inmates? 
A. No. 

Q. Then it had to fall to the lot of many lower salaried em¬ 
ployees to come into personal contact with the inmates? A. 
Yets; they aren’t all low. 

Q. Do you know what percentage are low paid employees? 
A. A large percentage. 

Q. A large percentage does come into constant physical con¬ 
tact and immediate touch with these patients ? A. I am not 

trying to indicate that you could get ideal conditions there. 
******* **** 

Q. You have stated that one of the real defects in connection 
with the conduct of the institutions on Randall’s Inland was the 
absolute callousness with relation to real child welfare. Will 
you kindly define what you mean by absolute callousness with 
relation to real child welfare? A. By not taking care of the 
children as they are taken care of at euch institutions as the 
New York Orphan Asylum, the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian 
Society and other institutions, conditions which approach as 
nearly as possible home conditions. 

Q. In what way do conditions on Randall’s Island differ from 
conditions which in your opinion ought to prevail. A. The 
conditions which prevail on Randall’s Island as I have seen 
them and as I have judged them from reports, disregard the in¬ 
dividual child in the main and treat the children rather as a 
whole without any regard to individuality. 

Q. In the institutions to which you have just made reference 
as showing conditions superior to those on Randall’s Island, 
what is the number of patients contained in each of these asy¬ 
lums’? A. I couldn’t say; very much less than on Randall’s 
Island, of course. 

Q. Isn’t it true that the supervising staff of nurses, orderlies 
and attendants is proportionately better able to take care of 
the inmates than on Randall’s Island ? A. I think that is true. 

Q. Do you happen to know, what salaries are paid to the or¬ 
derlies and the lower grade of help at those institutions? A. 
I do not. 

Q. When you speak of humane conditions' in regard to the 


Ill 


care of atypical cases tell ns what conditions you would impose, 
what conditions of care and supervision on those in charge? A. 
I am not an expert in the supervision of institutions of that 
kind; I should not attempt to do that. My job is to get the kind 
of man w T ho knows what to do there. 

Inspector Ford's testimony on pages 182 and 183. 

Q. When did you visit the Island last? A. May 15th. 

Q. What was the purpose of your last visit to the Island ? A. 
To examine the number, and wages paid to hospital helpers. 

Q. What was the result of that last study? A. I ascertained 
the number of hospital helpers had been somewhat decreased 
and the number of hospital helpers receiving very low wages 
had been decreased; the average wage was somewhat higher than 
at the preceding visit. 

Q. You considered that a step in advance? A. Yes. 

Q. You have discovered practically from the first visit in 
1914 to the present time there has been a betterment in the 
wage situation and some improvement in the physical conditions 
of the buildings and some compliance with the recommendations 
for plumbing and paint work and some interior repair work ? A. 
Yes. 

Dr. Schlapp’s testimony on page 207. 

Q. Is the number of attendants and nurses and attention given 
the inmates sufficient ? A. Personally I believe there ought to be 
more attendants and nurses to help there. 

Q. Did you come in contact frequently with the attendants on 
duty? A. I did. 

Q. What did you think of the grade and general average of 
value of service ? A. I thought many of them were not able to do 
the work properly. 

Q. Do you know what wages these ward attendants received? 
A. I have heard what wages these ward attendants received. 

Q. From what source did your information come? A. I do 
not know now. 

Q. Were they authentic and correct? A. I didn’t investigate. 

Q. What did you hear ? A. Some received $10 a month and I 


112 


also heard that some of them working there received no salary at 
all. 

Q. Were yon under the impression that some of the orderlies 
who received no salary were working in wards and came in con¬ 
tact with the inmates ? A. No; I think they were doing work on 
the Island. 

Q. Do you think proper hospital service can be obtained from 
orderlies receiving as low as $10 a month ? A. I do not. 

Q. Do you think a better service could he obtained there by 
having fewer attendants at a higher priced wage ? A. I think so, 
but the number of attendants is too small now. 

Q. So if you got a better grade of attendants and gave them 
more money you still would need more than you have now ? A. 
To do the work properly. 

Dr, Stechmanns testimony on pages 255 and 256. 

Q. Did you notice the class of help in the wards and pavilions ? 
A. Yes we didn’t like the class of help there. 

Q. What was the ground of your dislike? A. It takes a good 
deal of patience to get along with patients who are normal men¬ 
tally and to get along with abnormal children it takes extraordi¬ 
nary patience. The average nurse who gets $25 a week is apt to 
get impatient and a person that gets $10 a month certainly is more 
apt. The atypical child should have better class of help. 

Q. How do you come to name a salary of $10 a month ? A. I 
was told that was sometimes paid the attendants and orderlies and 
servants. 

Q. You have no hesitancy in saying that is too low a wage at 
which to secure competent help? A. No; it certainly is too low. 

Q. Were there enough attendants and orderlies to take car© of 
all the inmates, apart from their salary? A. No; there should be 
more nurses; we wanted to establish a lecture course and we 
had the nurses called to the lecture, there was a lot of trouble 
because there weren’t enough people to take care of the work. 

Acting Superintendent Flick's testimony on pages 260, 268, 
269 and 270. 

Q. What percentage of the orderlies were of this ten dollar 
a month class? A. Seventy-five per cent, more or less. 


113 


Q. How many less? A. The large majority; I can’t say 
. exactly. 

Q. More than half, Mr. Flick? A. Yes. 

Q. And these were people who came in immediate physical 

contact with the inmates, were they not ? A. They were at¬ 
tendants, yes, sir. 

Q. You came to the conclusion that these people were of a 

grade not to he relied upon for this kind of work? A. Ho, I 

didn’t come to that conclusion; I knew it before. 

Q. You were of that opinion, Mr. Flick, before you came to 
the Island ? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. What change, if any, have you made towards weeding out 
these underpaid and incompetent men and supplanting them 
with higher paid help? A. I paid some $15, $20, $30, $-10 
and $45. 

Q. How many of these $10 people have you gotten rid of 
since you came to the Island ? A. I suppose four or five are 
left but salary is increased. 

Q. Out of how many ? A. Taking care of the children ? 
Fifty-two. 

Q. You have gotten rid of practically all of these underpaid 
undesirable help and replaced them with a better class of people ? 
A. Yes. 

Q. Do you find the service rendered by the newer employees 
is more satisfactory and produces a better result ? A. Some of 
them. 

Q. Hot all? A. I am obliged to make quite a number of 
changes there now. 

Dr. Carlos F. MacDonald's testimony on pages 319 and 320. 

Q. We have had some evidence of the wages paid some of the 
employees on the Island and it is on record that a good many 
have received as low as ten dollars per month; what should hos¬ 
pital helpers be paid to insure good service ? A. At least double 
that sum. Ten dollars a month is ludicrously inadequate. 

Q. What is paid in the State service in the State hospitals? 
A. I investigated that in the State hospitals while commissioner. 
I found women who had entered the service at ten dollars' and 


114 


maintenance had been advanced to the magnificent sum of $14, 
and I inquired of a good many attendants how they managed 
to get along on that amount of money, and we considered it, and 
the Commissioner took it up and advanced the pay, and we wanted 
to make the pay of the women equal to that of the men, my 
feeling being that the woman who renders the same service as 
a man should have the same pay as a man, but the appropriations 
wouldn’t stand for it and we fixed it at about two-thirds of the 
men. 

Q. What do they receive now? A. $25 to $40 according to 
the length of service and regular promotion in pay due to length 
of service, with efficiency in service, from minimum to maxi¬ 
mum. 

Homer Folks’ testimony on pages 327, 343 and 345. 

Q. Upon whom do you place the blame, if upon anybody, 
for the low wages paid at that time to the employees of the 
Randall’s Island institutions ? A. The Board of Estimate and 
Apportionment primarily. 

Q. It wouldn’t attach to anyone on the Island? A. Hot if 
they made adequate efforts to secure larger salaries. 

Q. How could those efforts be made by anyone on the Island ? 
A. By appeals repeatedly and strongly made to the head of the 
Department. 

Q. That would be the Commissioner of Public Charities? A. 
The Commissioner of Public Charities'. 

Q. And the Commissioner of Charities would have to make 
an appeal to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment? A. 
Yes, that is entirely correct. 

*********** 

Q. What did you do while you were Commissioner to obtain 
better pay for the employees of that department ? A. I urged 
very strongly upon the Board of Estimate and Apportionment 
during the years of my term. 

Q. Were you successful? A. To some degree. 

Max Niklas’ testimony on pages 416, 417, 417b and 418. 

Q. As a part of the work of assigning men to work did you 
have anything to do with their employment, employment of the 
helpers generally? A. According to the rules I assigned them. 


115 


Q. Did you have anything to do with employing the men ? A. 
I employed them when Mrs. Dunphy engaged them. 

Q. Can you give us the character of the men whom you em¬ 
ployed as orderlies when Mrs. Dunphy engaged them ? A. They 
generally came from the Municipal Lodging House. 

Q. What character of men are to he found there ? A. That is 
what is decided by the men who have in charge the lodging house. 

Q. These men are largely homeless men? A. Otherwise they 
would not be at the lodging house. 

Q. What is the lodging house? A refuge for the city’s home¬ 
less people where they can go to get a night’s lodging ? 1 A. That 
is what they are. 

Q. What did you pay these men on the Island ? A. If money 
is available they might get ten dollars. 

Q. What did you give them if not available ? A. They would 
have to wait until there was a vacancy. 

Q. What service did they perform for ten dollars? A. Work 
in the wards among the inmates, as drivers, firemen, boiler-house 
men. 

Q. What percentage of these ten dollar men were put to work 
in the wards among the inmates ? A. There might be twenty to 
twenty-five of these men who come in there. 

Q. Did you think you could get a good, satisfactory employee 
for a wage of ten dollars a month? A. We had no money to pay 
more. 

Q. Do you think satisfactory help can be brought from the Mu¬ 
nicipal Lodging House? A. They had no other men. 

Q. How were you originally appointed to that position?' A. 
The Civil Service. 

Q. As a result of competitive examination ? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. In selecting these men sent you from the Municipal Lodging 
House did you ever look up their references ? A. The references 
come from the lodging house. 

Q. Did you ever employ men not recommended from the Mu¬ 
nicipal Lodging House? A. I did. 

Q. Some of the men were sent up without any recommenda¬ 
tion whatever? A. Yes. 


116 


Q. Did you think it important to get a recommendation as to 
their character and to inquire into these recommendations ? A. I 
inquired into some of them. 

Q. What was the average length of service of these ten dollars 
a month men: how long did they stay ? A. Sometimes three, four 
or five weeks, until they got their first pay, and then they went 
away again. 

Q. So the low salary led to frequent changes of help % A. Yes. 

Wages at State Institutions for the Feeble-Minded 

The rates of wages for attendants in State institutions for 
the feeble-minded as allowed by the State Salary Classification 
Commission, are shown by the following statistics: 

Syracuse State Institution for Feeble-Minded Children 
(Figures given are in addition to maintenance) 

Head attendants, men $40 a month, women $35. 

Night attendants, men $30 to $35 a month, women $25 to $30. 

Day attendants, men $25 to $30 a month, women $20 to $25. 

State Custodial Asylum for Feeble-Minded Women, Newark 
(Figures given are in addition to maintenance) 

First attendants, $35 a month. 

Hight attendants, $30 a month. 

Day attendants, $25 a month (all women). 

Rome State Custodial Asylum 
(Figures given are in addition to maintenance) 

Night attendants, men $35 a month, women $30. 

Day attendants, men $30 a month, women $25. 

Attending teachers, men $30 a month, women $25. 

Letchwortk Village , Thiells 
(Figures given are in addition to maintenance.) 

Attendants for farm groups (women) $25 to $30 a month; 
(men) $35 a month. 


117 


The Congestion oe Population 

Deputy Commissioner Wright’s testimony on pages 14, 16 and 
25. 

Q. In connection with your visits to the Island, did you ever 
look into the sufficiency of housing conditions, the census of 
patients, and study what the accommodations were for them on 
the Island ? A. To a certain extent. I was familiar with the 
census and with the approximate number of beds in the various 
buildings. 

Q. Has the number of beds in the various buildings been ade¬ 
quate for the number of patients \ A. It has not. 
*********** 

Q. Are these buildings in your opinion proper in number and 
in construction needs to meet the present day requirements of 
institutional construction? A. No. 

Q. In what respect are these buildings deficient or wanting? 
A. For dormitory purposes and for hospital purposes they in 
the main lack accessory rooms. 

*********** 

Q. You had especial charge of the care and welfare of these 
children; approximately you have a population of two thousand ? 
A. Yes. 

Q. You know the normal capacity is approximately 1500? 
A. Yes, about. 

Q. So you have a normal capacity of 1500 and a population of 
2000 ? A. Yes. 

Q. Many of these children are feeble-minded? A. Yes. 

Q. They have to be watched over and great care exercised to 
keep them in health and well clothed? A. Yes. 

Inspector Parks’ testimony on pages 188, 189, 190 and 191, 
given as the result of special inspections made from April 17 to 
,24, 1915. 

Q. To what conditions, what if any particular ones, did you 
direct your attention to this series of visits? A. To endeavor 
to get as full an idea of all the phases of the institution as possible. 

Q. Can you tell us the general results of your observation and 
visits on the Island ? A. In a general way. 


118 


Q. Tell us in as general or specific a way as you can, your 
impressions and what you learned on the Island on the occasion of 
these visits. You may refresh your memory from any slip or data 
that you may care to. A. I found the Hew York City Children’s 
Hospitals and Schools were very much overcrowded, that the 
buildings in general were old and in rather poor repair; that the 
help and employees were too few in number and on the whole 
insufficiently paid; that especially there was a deficiency in the 
number of resident physicians and trained nurses to secure proper 
supervision and that there was a need of a modern service build¬ 
ing, lack of lights, standpipes and chemical extinguishers through¬ 
out the plant; exterior and interior renovation of buildings. 

Q. Give us the data of the individual facts upon which you 
based these conclusions; take the overcrowded condition first. A. 
As regards the overcrowded condition I have here a summary of 
the number of children in each building, in each ward in some of 
the larger buildings, the number of beds actually in the building 
or ward, and my estimate of what the normal capacity of such 
building should be. 

Q. The number of beds that should properly be there? A. 
Yes. 

Q. And you base that upon your qualifications as a physician ? 
A. Yes; and my experience in visiting. 
********** 

A. In building containing 1, 2 and 3 wards I found 104 boys, 
110 beds and my estimate of capacity was about ninety. 

The building containing wards 6 to 10 contained 193 girls, 
there were 193 beds with an approximate capacity of 150. 

Ho. 11, 213 boys, 137 beds, approximate capacity 120. 

This was one of the custodial buildings and a larger number 
of boys who really sleep elsewhere were registered officially as be¬ 
longing to that ward. 

Ward 14 contained 27 girls with 28 beds and an approxi¬ 
mate capacity of 25. 

Wards 15, 16 and 17 contained 77 boys, 80 beds with approxi¬ 
mate capacity of 60. 

Ward 23 contained 9 girls, 9 beds, capacity 20. 

Ward 24 contained 15 boys, 15 beds, capacity 20. 

Ward 26, 22 girls, 22 beds, capacity 20. 


119 


Ward 25, 15 boys, 15 beds, capacity 20. 

Ward 27, 16 boys, 17 beds, capacity 20. 

Ward 28 contained 18 girls, 19 beds, capacity 20. 

Dormitory building 1, 3 contained 209 girls, 210 beds and ap¬ 
proximate capacity of 200. 

Dormitory 2, 124 boys, 124 beds, capacity 100. 

Ward B contained 84 girls, 79 beds, capacity 60. 

Ward C 143 girls, 93 beds, approximate capacity 80. 

Ward D 66 girls, 43 beds, 40 capacity. 

Ward E 84 girls, 52 beds, capacity 40. 

Ward F-l, F-3 199 boys, 127 beds, capacity 100. 

Ward F-2, 101 boys, 139 beds, 100 capacity. 

G-l, G-3, 56 boys, 6 girls, 56 beds and 50 capacity. 

The Infants’ Hospital contained 81 boys, 115 girls, 222 beds 
and a capacity of 200. 

The reception hospital contained 8 boys, 5 girls, 68 beds, capac¬ 
ity 50. 

The Quarantine shacks, 1 boy, 23 girls, 30 beds, capacity 30. 

That left a total of 1020 boys, 1004 girls, 1932 beds and a 
1615 capacity. 

Q. The excess would be about four hundred ? A. Yes. 

Inspector Ford's testimony on pages 299, 300, 301 and 302, 
as the result of a special inspection made on May 31, 1915. 

Q. You were questioned at one of the prior hearings conducted 
by this Committee as to the space capacity of the various hospital 
wards on Randall’s Island? A. Yes. 

Q. I believe I asked you at that time whether the wards were 
sufficiently large to accommodate the various inmates ? A. Yes. 

Q. And you said they were overcrowded and insufficient; can 
you give any statistics tending to prove that overcrowded con¬ 
dition? A. Yes, on the first day of June in company with Dr. 
Park I visited the institution and took the measurement of cer¬ 
tain wards and I prepared a table, a copy of which I have here 
stating the results of such measurements as to air space per bed. 

Q. Can you give us the results of these figures? A. The 
results show that in the wards measured which were those wliich 
appeared to be the most overcrowded the air space is below the 
standard of 600 cubic feet per bed which is set by the public 


120 


health authorities, the Public Health Law, in certain specified 
classes of institutions in the absence of permits from the Board of 
Health allowing a smaller air space per bed. In four of the 
dormitories measured the air space is less than four hundred cubic 
feet per bed; those are north hospital, third floor, ward ten; 
dormitory B, second floor; dormitory 11, third floor now known as 
building 18, dormitory 11 second floor. Those are the four. 

Q. Is there a statutory requirement in the Public Health Law 
as to hall space. A. There is, two feet between the beds. 

Q. Is that lived up to in the wards ? A. In nearly all instances 
it is not. 

Q. Do you know what the average air space allowed in wards 
is? A. Very many of the beds are separated by a space of 
thirteen to fourteen inches and of twelve inches. 

Q. So that this air space is in a good many instances only half 
of what is required by law? A. Yes, practically half in many 
instances. 

Q. If the law was to be lived up to you would have to remove 
some of the inmates from the Island ? A. Or beds would have to 
be removed from the dormitory. 

Q. Where would you put them, out of doors ? A. There aren’t 
buildings enough to live up to the legal requirements. 

The following memorandum prepared by Inspector Ford with 
reference to the air space per bed in certain of the dormitories of 
the Hew York City Children’s Hospitals and Schools on Randall’s 
Island, was received in evidence. 


Name and Location of Dormitory 


F 2, third floor front. 

F 2, third floor rear. 

Dormitory 2, second floor (Building 13).... 

Dormitory 2, third floor. 

Dormitory 11, second floor (Building 18).. . . 

Dormitory 11, third floor (Building 18). 

Dormitory 16, second floor. 

Dormitory B, second floor. 

North Hospital, third floor, Ward 9. 

North Hospital, third floor, Ward 10. 


Dimensions 

Cubic 
feet 
of air 
space 

Number 
of beds 

Cubic 
feet of 
air space 
per bed 

Feet 

37 x 36J x 12. 

16,095 

33 

488 

48! x 37 x 12. 

21,534 

44 

490 

52f x 30| x 10. 

16,215 

35 

463 

52| x 30 j x 11. 

17,836 

35 

509 

70 x 30) x 11. 

23,485 

61 

385 

94 x 30^x11. 

31,537 

80 

394 

30!x30 x 10. 

9,150 

22 

416 

72j x 32? x 10*. 

57| x 33} x 11. 

24,251 

80 

303 

21,191 

46 

461 

24! x29I x9f. 

7,036 

21 

335 































121 


The beds in the dormitories are nearly all separated by spaces 
much less than the two feet required in dormitories coming under 
the provisions of the Public Health Law. 

The following tables show the growth of population at the city 
institutions on Randall’s Island year by year during the past ten 
years and the comparatively small amounts expended by the city 
for improvements during the same period: 

Population - at the Hew York 'City Institutions on Ran¬ 
dall’s Island, 1906 to 1915: 

Total 

. 1,418 

. 1,234 

. 1,456 

. 1,537 

. 1,580 

. 1,595 

. 1,610 

. 1,903 

. 1,977 

. 2,049 


Buildings at the Hew York City Institutions on 
Randall’s Island: 

Contract Work Work 

Name of building price begun completed 

Addition to Building for Male 

Helpers. $42,077 75 June 1903 July 6, 1904 

Two isolation buildings. 10,747 22 Mar. 15, 1907 Dec. 2, 1907 

Nurses’ Home (100 beds). 200,000 00 Dec. 14, 1909 June 1, 1912 

Addition to Ward F (64 beds).. 16,619 00 1912 1913 

Dr. Harris' testimony on pages 391 and 395. 

Q. Was there overcrowding on the Island in your opinion? 
A. Yes. 

Q. You made the statement that you would send the atypical 
children elsewhere; where? A. I would send them up to 
Letch worth Village and if the State hadn’t the money to appro¬ 
priate the State ought to be bonded to provide buildings for all 


Year 

1906 

1907 

1908 

1909 

1910 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1915 


Hew 

















122 


the feeble-minded people who are committed from the various 
counties of New York to this institution and have the State take 
care of them and so give up this beautiful piece of property at 
Randall’s Island with its wonderful air space for other pur¬ 
poses; there is a tract of land up at Letchworth Village which 
is ready to receive inmates if the money was appropriated for the 
proper buildings and then that Island would be free to do with 
as the Commissioner of Charities decides. 

Mrs. Hazard's testimony on page 408. 

Q. What changes if you can recall, have been effected in 
the last ten years in the physical conditions on Randall’s Island, 
new buildings and improvements ? A. New Industrial School, 
and Nurses’ Home; and I don’t remember when the gymnasium 
was put up. 

Q. Conditions have been somewhat better physically in the 
last ten years ? A. Yes. 

Q. Do you think the administration of affairs on the Island 
has been better in recent years ? A. I think it is. In the vo¬ 
cational training which has been improved constantly. 

Q. Do you know to whom credit should be given in the way 
of the new Nurses’ Home and the vocational training courses ? 
A. Yes, to the superintendent entirely. 

Dr. Sclilapp’s testimony on pages 209, 210, 214 and 215. 

Q. From your connection with other institutions are you able to 
pass judgment on the average condition from the viewpoint of 
being satisfied or unsatisfied with conditions as they prevailed on 
Randall’s Island from the viewpoint of general administration? 
A. Well, I don’t know about the administration side of the work, 
the clerical work, and so on. 

Q. No, from the viewpoint of the hospital and medical admin¬ 
istration ? A. It was as good as could be had under the condi¬ 
tions, according to my opinion. 

Q. Will you tell us what those conditions are which prevented 
the betterment of certain features of the work there? A. Im¬ 
proper help; allowing visitors to come two or three days a week 
to visit their children, bringing over all sorts of food that they 


123 


would feed the children in such a way as to cause them to, in the 
case of epileptics, have epileptic fits after their families had been 
there and fed them themselves different foods, and then not enough 
space for the patients, that is the wards didn’t have enough. 

Q. By improper help you mean that the help was underpaid 
and too few in number? A. Yes. 

Q. Was there any departmental rule against visitors, and any 
given period at which they might come ? A. I don’t know as there 
was any rule; I know parents had been coming twice a week. 

Q. Was there any. departmental, rule which forbade the bring¬ 
ing of articles of food to inmates? A. I think not because I 
called Mrs. Dunphy’s attention to it and she called Commissioner 
Drummond’s attention to the fact and nothing had been done, 
nothing could be done. 

Q. How far in your opinion are the various buildings now in 
use fitted for their present purposes? A. I think they could be 
very much improved upon. 

Q. Can you give some instance in which this improvement 
might be manifested ? A. The buildings are all old in the first 
place. I think the facilities in the buildings are not sufficient to 
care for the patients in the proper way. 

Q. What facilities do you speak of? A. Bathing facilities I 
mean and places where the children can be cleaned. I think much 
can be done to improve that condition. 

Q. Did your Board ever recommend at any time physical im¬ 
provement along those lines ? A. Ho, sir. 

Q. To whom did your Board make reports if at all? A. We 
reported our meetings to the Commissioner. 

Q. What was the subject of discussion at your meetings, gen¬ 
eral conditions of the Island ? A. Medical situations. 

Dr. Cornivell’s testimony on pages 228 and 229. 

Q. In your opinion was the general administration of affairs on 
the Island at the hands of the superintendent in the fore part of 
1914 and 1915 a competent and proper supervision? A. In my 
opinion it was eminently proper with the resources at hand. 

Q. Do you think these resources were inadequate to give com¬ 
plete and proper administration? A. Yes. 


124 


Q. Will you tell us wherein the requirements were short of the 
standard ? A. She hadn’t sufficient help with which to carry out 
her administration; the help she had was very largely untrained 
and underpaid. She had unsanitary buildings; many of these 
buildings were so old and unsanitary that the odor in them was 
almost unbearable in them on a hot summer’s day and yet I 
never saw any buildings in any institution which were kept 
cleaner. 

Q. Did you think there was sufficient space in the building to 
properly give accommodation to the different inmates? A. No, 
there was not; I cannot give you any statistics. 

Q. Whereon do you base that answer then ? A. When I first 
went on service there two' years and a half ago it was pretty well 
crowded then and we had 1,200 to 1,300 patients. There was no 
increase of accommodations providing for the patients during 
that period although the number in the meanwhile was increasing 
until we had over 2,000 inmates. 

Q. You are speaking now of the atypical cases only ? A. Yes. 

Dr. Bisclis testimony on page 243. 

Q. Did you consider the buildings adequate for the needs of 
the inmates ? A. No, I don’t. 

Q. In what respect did you consider them inadequate and im¬ 
proper? A. In the first place there was overcrowding, and it 
seemed on account of the fewness of the buildings it could not be 
helped, and there were certain patients who had to be placed on the 
high upper floor who in case of fire might have had difficulty in 
getting out, and in some of the buildings there was a leakage of 
gas and a terrible odor of gas all the time, and in general they 
seemed to be poorly constructed and out of date, but as to physical 
cleanliness that was observed strictly. Whenever visitors were 
taken into the male ward where low grade idiots were they said 
how clean it looked because they wet and soiled themselves, and 
you wouldn’t expect it to be so clean there, perhaps, and it was 
almost spotless. 

Dr. Bainbridge's testimony on pages 375 and 376. 

Q. You have seen an improvement since her suspension in 
March ? A. A distinct improvement. 


125 


Q. Can you describe what it consists of? A. It is cleaner; 
there is better food and it is better cooked; the children are 
cleaner; I have seen no evidence of brutality toward the children 
as I have seen since 1899, definite brutality; there have been fire 
drills I have known of; there is more of segregation of the con¬ 
tagious diseases; it is not perfect yet; it is very far from that and 
the segregation must go on further; there has been a longer time 
for the inmates to remain in quarantine and there has been dis¬ 
tinct improvements in the building, the toilet paper, and closets 
have been cleaner, distinctly. 

Q. I do not understand that you have given this Committee 
any definite instances of cruel and inhuman treatment you have 
seen at the Island in the last year and a half ? A. None whatever. 

Q. How far back would you have to go to find the last instance 
you can recall ? A. While I was chairman of the Inspection Com¬ 
mittee; while I was a member of the Inspection Committee; 
while president of the Board it was my duty to go there 
very frequently and I spent a great deal of time there; in the last 
four or five years I haven’t spent as much time and I haven’t been 
on the Inspection Committee. I was simply attending physician. 
I have seen the children restrained with jackets; I have seen 
rough bed ticking on the children as diapers and they suffered 
from absolute inflammation of the skin. I have seen that in more 
than one instance when there was good clothing enough in the 
central part which was seen by the visitors to the Island. If the 
Board would wish to see a sample of that I have a sample and 
after we had brought charges we found it was necessary to be 
very careful. 

Dr. Harris testimony on pages 392, 393 and 394. 

Q. Am I correct in assuming that there had been a lack of 
team work in Mrs. Dunphy’s time between the superintendent and 
the Medical Board and the superintendent and the nursing staff ? 
A. Decidedly, and the Medical Board and nursing department 
and diet department never cooperated. 

Q. Had such cooperation been requested by the Medical Board ? 
A. In a personal communication to Mrs. Dunphy. 


126 


Q. Had this personal communication brought response ? A. In 
a very modified way; that antagonism was so intense between the 
diet and the nursing departments that they could not be brought 
together; they did not cooperate for the benefit of the inmates. 

Q. The dietetic department was in charge of — A. A dietitian. 

Q. Appointed by— A. The Commissioner of Charities. 

Q. And responsible to— A. The superintendent. 

Q. And the nursing staff was responsible to whom? A. The 
superintendent as far as carrying out of orders of Medical Board 
of sick children. 

Q. Did the attending physicians seek to smooth out this diffi¬ 
culty between the dietitian and the nursing staff ? A. Yes, a great 
effort was made. 

Q. And was the cooperation of the superintendent sought in 
that effort? A. Yes. 

Q. And was that cooperation refused? A. The result was not 
accomplished; no result was accomplished. It is very necessary 
to have cooperation between the nursing and the diet department 
in order to know how much food the children eat and whether 
they refuse any article of food because with two thousand inmates 
it is necessary to adjust the diet and meet the demands of the chil¬ 
dren and no such knowledge was available in the nursing depart¬ 
ment or the diet department. The nursing department didn’t 
look into it and the diet department didn’t have the staff to visit 
thirty-two dining rooms and find out whether the children had 
food or not and I visited the dining rooms a good many times and 
couldn’t get it and to this day I haven’t got a knowledge of what 
the children do eat; but the improvement is wonderfully better 
than it was. 

Dr. Stowell’s testimony on page 402. 

Q. In your opinion did you believe that charges as grave in 
form and in substance as here preferred against the superintendent 
of Randall’s Island were justified by the general conditions there? 
A. For this reason, there was a lack of harmony between the 
superintendent and the medical side for years. 

Q. How did that lack of harmony manifest itself ? A. Because 
the Medical Board had to ask for things and call attention to mat- 


127 


ters over and over again; it always seemed next to impossible to 
get anything done unless it was something that appealed particu¬ 
larly to the superintendent; I had no personal antagonism to the 
superintendent. When she came to the Island I think she came 
as a part of the almshouse and it always seemed to me that her 
idea of administration was along the care of almshouse progress 
rather than medical progress and that was my personal idea of why 
it was so difficult to get medical things and they would have to be 
fought for and have to go down to see the Commissioner to get 
things through. 

Mrs. Hazard’s testimony on pages 406, 407, 410, 411, 412 and 
414. 

Q. Did you come in contact much with those who are in 
charge on the Island, the superintendent and the assistant superin¬ 
tendent ? A. Yes, but I would like to say I was visiting Randall’s 
Island at frequent intervals for six or seven years before I ever 
met Mrs. Dunphy. I want to say that because it has been sug¬ 
gested that I was a personal friend of hers which I have become 
but it is recently; all the information I needed was given me freely 
from the office and every suggestion I made for the betterment of 
a special case I made was carried out and was carried out in a 
friendly, kindly spirit. I never have had more perfect cooperation 
than there. 

Q. What suggestions did you have to make for the betterment 
of individual cases? A. A very striking one was the case of a 
young woman who has been there a good many years; she is abso¬ 
lutely feeble-minded and she is myopic and she is really unable to 
do anything, and when I first went there she seemed so helpless and 
so unhappy and I had known of her before she went there and I 
went over and said: can’t we find something she can do ? And the 
teachers took the utmost pains and found out that the poor thing 
liked to paint and they took great interest in her, and I got her 
paints and they put up a screen for her in the schoolroom because 
she didn’t want to be seen doing it, and she has been an entirely 
different and happy person since; that seems a little thing but it 

illustrates the cooperation I found. 
********** 

Q. Do you think there has been any callousness of child wel- 


128 


fare by nurses or attendants in immediate charge of the children 
there ? A. I have never seen a trace of it. 

Q. Do you think there has been humane and kindly treatment 
approaching home conditions? A. I think so; it is not possible 
when you have sixty children, to look after each one and pet each 
one as much as if you had two; it is, has been perfectly wonderful, 
the tone of the institution; I have never heard a voice raised, I 
have never heard a nurse speak to a child as mothers speak to 
their children in the tenement houses. 

Q. Have you anything to tell the State Board in regard to 
changes in administration since that date ? A. I have; and I am 
very glad to bring it to the State Board of Charities. I went 
there in April; I was going to the Island on a Saturday and at 
125th street I was given the information which filled me with 
horror and when I went over there I found it was correct. They 
had a difficulty or some disturbance and by way of solving the 
difficulty the two ringleaders, feeble-minded both, waiting to be 
sent to the adult Feeble-Minded Asylum at Borne, were taken 
over on the boat and landed on the crowded upper east side and 
turned loose with ten cents in their pockets; and then we are 
astonished and cannot account for ripper crimes. 

Q. Who told you? A. The policeman on the dock at 125th 
street; I was told it was done by the permission, by the orders of 
the person in charge, a Mr. Flick with permission from the Com¬ 
missioner’s office, 

Q. Who told you that? A. I was told by various people. 

Q. Who were the various people ? A. It was not told me until 
I cross examined them but I was told that by Dr. Books. 

Q. Anyone else ? A. He is resident physician. 

Q. He is still there? A. Yes. 

Q. Who else did you hear it from ? A. The policeman on the 
dock. 

********** 

Q. You testified I believe yesterday that two of the inmates on 
Randall’s Island had been sent from the Island as incorrigible at 
a time when their condition had not justified their being turned 
adrift in Hew York City; have I recited your testimony correctly ? 
A. Yes, except at a special time, they were feeble-minded, being 
deficient in that way they are always unfit. 


129 


Q. Can you give us the names of these inmates of the Island 
who were so turned adrift ? A. Yes; Bland and Veitz, and I have 
since had a third name added which is White. The Bland and 
Veitz cases were both being held to go to Kome and Veitz has 
since returned, got back to the Island, and is now being held to go 
to Borne again. I received this information I should say on 
April 24, Saturday, April 24. 

Q. Who gave you that information? A. Dr. Books, and Dr. 
Books called me up on the telephone this morning and is very 
much surprised at what was in the newspapers because he didn’t 
deny giving me the information which is just as I gave it. 

Mrs. Dunphy’s testimony on page 504. 

Q. The Medical Staff has been here and made statements about 
the lack of cooperation between you and the Medical Board; has 
there been such lack of cooperation ? A. As far as I know every¬ 
thing they asked me to do I did. 

Q. You thought you had been working with them sympathetic¬ 
ally all these years ? A. Certainly. 

The Mentally Defective Delinquents 

Acting Superintendent Flick’s testimony on pages 527, 528, 
,533 and 534. 

Q. Is the general deportment of the inmates good, their con¬ 
duct ? A. Their conduct is good except those few criminal delin¬ 
quents, very good, excellent. 

Q. Have you during the period of your superintendency had 
any riots or any widespread instances of misconduct ? A. Except 
those criminal delinquents not any at all. 

Q. Except the criminal delinquents; did those criminal delin¬ 
quents by a concerted movement start anything that looked like 
a riot? A. Yes, among the inmates in what is called ward 11. 

Q. Is that a ward in which you have these criminal classes ? A. 
Yes. 

Q. How serious were these disturbances ? A. It was not very 
serious, it was in May I think, perhaps April. It was serious until 
I got there; when I got there everything was quiet. 


130 


Q. What time of night did they start ? A. I think they were 
timed about the time I was getting my good sleep and all at once 
my telephone rang. 

Q. During what particular hour when you were getting your 
good sleep were you disturbed ? A. Between eleven and twelve. 
As soon as I got there everything got quiet. I undertook a 
search for the ringleader; I examined every inmate and found 
some of these inmates having blackjacks and knives like a stiletto 
in their possession and on those I inflicted punishment and iso¬ 
lation. 

Q. Aren’t these inmates searched when they come on the Island ? 
A. Yes, they are searched. 

Q. Are they permitted to keep deadly weapons ? A. Ho. 

Q. How do you account for the presence of stilettos and black¬ 
jacks? A. I account in this way, suppose an inmate works as 
assistant to the engineer in the hoilerhouse and he finds something 
for a weapon and he sticks it in his pocket and hides it in the ward, 
or as assistant to the electrician or tinsmith; you have to give them 
some work and naturally you can’t watch them every minute. 

Q. Were any of these disturbances so serious as to necessitate 
the calling in of the police? A. Not the police, hut we have a 
policeman on the Island who is always at call and help us in any 
case of disturbance. 

Q. Did you require his services or use his services ? A. I never 
used it myself hut twice it came when the policeman was on duty 
and tried to quiet the hoys. He is off duty to-day. He is em¬ 
ployed by the Police Department and not the Charities Depart¬ 
ment. 

Q. Have any fires been started on the Island since you were 
here, apparently incendiary in their origin? A. Yes, two. 

Q. Did you investigate the cause of those fires? A. Yes, 
thoroughly. 

Q. And what conclusion did you come to as the result of that 
investigation ? A. I came to the conclusion that they were started 
by some of these criminal delinquents. 
********** 

Q. In addition to this cell in F2 Building have you at any time 
made use of a cell in the women’s hospital building? A. Yes, the 
infants’ hospital, that is in addition to F2; we haven’t had the 


131 


two used together. We had Finnem, and then Blumberg was 
there. He took three poor feeble-minded boys, he is a high grade, 
more criminal, to the river and had them nearly drowned; one 
of the boys was rescued by one of the men of the Pennsylvania 
railroad construction bridge there and the three were brought to 
me and he told me he saw him trying to make them go into the 
river. He was sent to Pome. 

Q. How was this possible if the boys were properly looked after 
while at recreation or play ? A. If we didn’t have these criminal 
delinquents it wouldn’t exist; it is to be regretted there is no means 
of keeping these delinquents from the institution. I accept full 
responsibility for all punishment I have inflicted; it wasn’t cruel. 

Q. Were these hoys supposed to be watched by an attendant or 
orderly or are they supposed to he unattended and unsupervised ? 
A. They are w r atched by an attendant in the ward. 

Q. If the attendant had been watching these three inmates 
closely or carefully would it have been possible for Costello to have 
gotten them away ? A. It is remarkable that within five minutes 
of the boys going away from there I was looking for the boys. 

Q. How large a salary did that attendant receive in that particu¬ 
lar pavilion who permitted these three boys to go away? A. 
Twenty dollars: that is a woman. 

Q. Twenty dollars is the fair average wage on the Island for 
the women workers ? A. That is the average salary for the women 
attendants. 

Q. What is your average salary for the men attendants? A. 
I think that would be also $20. 

Q. Have you many of the $10, $12.50 and $15 attendants on 
the Island ? A. The lowest salary is $15 for those who take care 
of the children. 

Q. How many $10 a month men have you on the Island at 
present? A. I think about 74; I am not going to say that is 
exact, about 70. 

Q. Do any of these $10 a month attendants come in physical 
contact with the children and take care of them ? A. No; none of 
them take care of the children; the lowest wage of attendants who 
come in contact with the children is $15 a month. 

Q. How many of that $15 a month grade are there in all of 
those who take care of children ? A. We have 54 orderlies taking 


132 


care of children and all who have charge of a ward by themselves 
received $20 and over bnt those who have a superintending nurse 
in charge receive $15. 

Q. At what price do you find you are able to get a fair grade 
of help ? A. At the price of $20 and over. As soon as we are to 
have money we ought to raise the initial salary to at least $20 
and then progress and gradually raise the salaries. 

Letchwoeth Village 

Mr. Kirlcbride’s testimony on pages 445 and 460. 

Q. You are the Secretary of Letchworth Village ? A. Yes, I 
am the Secretary. 

Q. Will you tell the committee something if you please, in your 
own way and as fully as you like as to the plan and scope of Letch¬ 
worth Village with such information as you think may be useful 
to the committee ? A. In 1907 a commission was appointed to 
select a site; in 1908 the Legislature appropriated the money to 
purchase the site recommended by the Site Commission; the fol¬ 
lowing year the Site Commission completed its labors, the institu¬ 
tion was organized and a Board of Managers appointed to take 
care of the proposition. Letchworth Village is for the care of 
the feeble-minded and epileptic cases from the 'Southern part of 
the State; the first patients were admitted in 1911 and there has 
been an inmate population of one hundred since that time; at 
present four dormitories are practically ready, which will admit 
280 more cases; the first of these was opened a week ago and 
all ought to be ready in July. At first the Site Commission 
and since then the Board of Managers have been endeavoring 
steadily to get sufficient appropriations to develop the institution 
to its full capacity which wfill be three thousand beds. Up to 
September 30th last the total appropriations made were $1,386,- 
000; there was lost by lapse and reappropriations vetoed by Gov¬ 
ernor Glynn $209,000, making a total of $1,176,000. 
********** 

Q. Do you know that the institution on Randall’s Island which 
has to do with looking after feeble-minded inmates is in charge of 
the local or Hew York City Department of Public Charities ? A. 
I do. 


133 


Q. Do you believe tbe care and custody of the feeble-minded is 
a function or duty properly to be discharged by a municipality 
rather than the State ? A. I think the State should assume the 
burden of care of the feeble-minded. 

Conclusions and Recommendations of the Committee 

First.—As to the alleged brutal and inhuman treatment of 
inmates. 

The Committee has not been able to find any substantial evi¬ 
dence of the truth of the serious charges to the effect that the 
children at the New York City Children’s Hospitals and Schools 
were permitted by the superintendent or any one else in authority 
to be brutally or inhumanely treated. The weight of evidence 
leads to the conclusion that the general authorities at these institu¬ 
tions at all times sought to secure good treatment for the inmates. 
At the same time, although the evidence as to that is quite in¬ 
definite and unsatisfactory, the Committee realizes that it is not 
at all impossible that occasional instances of misbehavior on the 
part of the poorly paid and inexperienced attendants may have 
occurred from time to time, particularly after it became the 
established custom to commit mentally defective delinquents, many 
of them substantially adult criminals, to these institutions. Such 
inmates, because of their delinquent tendencies and the lack of 
mental balance, constitute a particularly trying class. They 
should not have been sent to the Randall’s Island institutions, 
where they would surely become a disturbing influence, there to 
mingle with, intimidate and corrupt the younger and dependent 
inmates who, because of defective mentality, are peculiarly sus¬ 
ceptible to evil influences. These mentally defective delinquents 
cannot be dealt with in a satisfactory manner by inexperienced 
attendants, especially of a class that has never been able to dis¬ 
cipline itself. 

Considering the inferior grade of help provided by the City, 
and the theory advanced by Mr. Henry C. Wright, now First 
Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Public Charities, and 
as such in direct charge of the Randall’s Island institutions, in 
effect recommending the emplojunent of drunkards as hospital 
helpers, it is surprising that instances of misbehavior did not 


134 


frequently occur. A report on this subject made under Mr. 
Wright’s direction to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment 
in 1913, contains the following astonishing conclusions: 

“ (1) The City has assumed the support of the indigents ; 
and, in the absence of other institutions wherein the periodic 
and semi-responsible drunks can live and work, they can, to 
the best advantage, both to themselves and to the City, be 
supported as workers in the city’s hospitals. 

“ (2) This class renders good service when sober, and is 
content to serve for a small wage.” 

In this report Mr. Wright evidently quite overlooked the facts 
that drunkards are likely to use liquor if at all procurable, even 
when they are on duty and to the neglect of such duty no matter 
how serious its nature, and that to employ this class of irrespon- 
sibles as hospital helpers caring for the feeble-minded, is extremely 
hazardous, as well as highly improper. As the testimony taken by 
this Committee shows, the comparatively few specific instances of 
harshness to inmates which may be chargeable to attendants, ap¬ 
parently arose from the employment of this very class of helpers. 

For the evils, defects and abuses growing out of the employ¬ 
ment of a semi-vagrant class of hospital helpers, including 
“ periodic and semi-responsible drunks ” in large numbers, re¬ 
cruited mainly from the Municipal Lodging House, those really 
responsible are the fiscal authorities of the City. To be more 
specific the Committee refers to the members of the Board of 
Estimate and Apportionment, who have long been deaf to the 
entreaties of former Commissioners of the Department of Public 
Charities, as well as to the recommendations of this Board, to the 
effect that moneys be granted permitting of the payment of reason¬ 
able compensation to the hospital helper or attendant class, in 
order that a better class of such helpers might be employed, 
especially at the Randall’s Island institutions. 

While the reports of alleged abuses at the Hew York City insti¬ 
tutions on Randall’s Island which were given out to the public 
through the press by the Department of Public Charities, omitted 
to emphasize the really serious evils existing in such institutions, 
such reports greatly magnified the defects which they alleged did 
exist. These defects such as they were, continued to exist for 


135 


months without any attempt on the part of the Commissioner to 
correct them. When carefully examined, however, with regard 
to the striking of children, which they claimed personally to have 
observed, both Commissioner Kingsbury and Confidential In¬ 
spector Rice, in excusing their non-intervention, testified that no 
real harm had been done in the cases under consideration. This, 
we believe was generally the case; otherwise the neglect to take 
immediate action would have been most reprehensible. 

Second.—As to the alleged improper restraining of patients . 

The Committee could not find any evidence to warrant the 
charge that any patient was ever improperly restrained of his or 
her liberty. Methods of restraint seem to have been used mainly, 
if not entirely, in low grade cases requiring restraint in order to 
prevent them from injuring themselves or others. No evidence 
could be had that such restraint was of any unusual character or 
for purposes of punishment. It is quite possible, as alleged by 
some witnesses, without specific examples, although denied by 
others apparently better informed, that some children may have 
been restrained by nurses, when necessary, without definite in¬ 
structions from the house physician. 

Third.—As to the alleged failure to quarantine and segregate 
inmates. 

The question of quarantine is naturally one for the medical 
authorities to determine, and while, theoretically, the house physi¬ 
cians at the institution, acting under the direction of the medical 
boards, should have seen that the quarantine and the segregation 
of patients were carried out to the fullest extent possible, prac¬ 
tically such quarantine and segregation were limited by the struc¬ 
tural facilities on the Island. Never entirely satisfactory, these 
facilities naturally had a tendency to become less and less so as 
congestion in the institutions increased. From the low death rate 
it would, however, appear that the health and the lives of the in¬ 
mates were carefully safe-guarded from the encroachments of 
serious disease. 

The mortality in a public institution is generally regarded by 
the medical profession as a fair test of the care and treatment of 
the inmates. In this respect the mortality of the different grades 
of children in Randall’s Island compares favorably with the best 
institutions in the country devoted to the care of children. 


136 


The Board’s report to the Legislature of 1915 contains the fol¬ 
lowing statistics for the preceding fiscal year, based upon the report 
of the Department of Public Charities with relation to the New 
York City Children’s Hospitals and Schools on Randall’s Island: 


Total population in 1914.. 3,411 

Deaths... 112 

Percent. 3.28 

Population of Children’s Hospital in 1914. 1,307 

Deaths.. ... 28 

Percent. 2.14 

Population of School for Feeble-minded in 1914. 1,290 

Deaths.. 51 

Per cent. 3.95 

Population of Custodial Asylum. 814 

Deaths. 33 

Per cent. 4.05 


That there has long been serious overcrowding at the New 
York City Children’s Hospitals and Schools on Randall’s Island 
must be affirmed. Without any appreciable increase in capacity 
the census has grown from 1,418 in 1906 to 2,049 in 1915. But 
at the same time the City authorities are, only in part, responsible 
for such conditions. The State in 1907 established “ Letchworth 
Village ’ y at Thiells in Rockland County, largely to provide 
relief for the City institutions for the care of the feeble-minded. 
Progress in its establishment has been very slow for lack of ap¬ 
propriations. The general City authorities might, however, have 
been instrumental, through proper representations to the Legis¬ 
lature and the Governor, in hastening such relief, but it is not 
evident to the Committee that they have tried to do so. 

In the opinion of your Committee the care of the feeble-minded 
is clearly a function of the State which it should assume directly 
and entirely. We approve the recommendations of the recent 
State Commission to Investigate Provision for the Mentally 
Deficient, to this effect as w T ell as to the further effect that, by 
mutual agreement, the New York City institution for the feeble- 
minded, which is the only public institution of its kind under 
local control in this State, be taken over by the State, and used 
for the care and training of the high grade mentally deficient or 














137 


border-line case. On this general subject the State Commission 
hereinbefore mentioned, reported to the Legislature of 1915 in 
part as follows: 

“ This Commission considers it not only most important to 
increase the capacity of the institutions for the mentally de¬ 
ficient, but also regards it as highly desirable to make these 
institutions for the care of the dependent feeble-minded suf¬ 
ficiently inviting to cause the relatives and the friends of 
feeble-minded children to wish to place such children in the 
institutions of this class. The earlier they are so placed, the 
better for the State. For this reason largely, the Commis¬ 
sion believes it will be wise to have separate institutions for 
the higher grade mentally deficient children, whose relatives 
and friends might reasonably object to having the children 
placed with idiots and imbeciles of low grade. In part, for 
the same reason, and further because of the susceptibility of 
the mentally defective to evil suggestion, the Commission be¬ 
lieves there should be separate institutions for the mentally 
defective delinquents. 

“ In order to round out the system of State care recom¬ 
mended, the Commission recommends that the State take over 
the Hew York City asylums and schools at Randall’s Island 
and use this institution, which now houses all classes of the 
mentally deficient, as an institution for the high grade men¬ 
tally deficient, who may when trained be given to some extent 
at least, and under proper conditions of supervision, ‘ the test 
of liberty ’ also. Inmates can be taken from the Eastern and 
Southern parts of the State while those from other parts of 
the 'State can be sent, to the institution at Syracuse. By this 
arrangement the State can save the cost of construction while 
the city of Hew York can sooner rid itself of the cost of 
maintenance.” 

“In order to relieve the reformatories of the care of men¬ 
tally defective delinquents who are not susceptible to ref¬ 
ormation, and who at the same time, because of their delin¬ 
quent and criminalistic tendencies should not be allowed to 
mingle with the mentally defective dependents, who, as has- 
been said, are most susceptible to suggestion, the Commission 
recommends that provision be made for the establishment of 
two institutions, one for each sex, for the mentally defective 
class of delinquents.” 

Hew York City should not continue to pay more than seventy 
per cent, of the cost of administering the State institutions for the 
care of the feeble-minded and at the same time pay the entire cost 


138 


of maintaining a large institution of its own for precisely the same 
purpose. 

Fourth.—As to the alleged insufficiency of food. 

This complaint apparently resolved itself into what seems to 
have been the fact that some of the children did not at times eat 
their breakfast cereal, but partook of it with apparent relish when 
sugar was added. There was no evidence produced to show that 
any of the inmates suffered from lack of food, but on the con¬ 
trary, the evidence was clear that they were well and suitably fed. 

Fifth.—As to the alleged failure to wash the children and to 
provide toilet paper. 

No specific evidence was produced to show that the children 
were not bathed with sufficient frequency. The alleged insuf¬ 
ficiency of toilet paper was not shown to have been at all serious 
or continuous, nor of a nature to cause any trouble to inmates, 
many of whom could not he trusted to use toilet supplies properly. 

Sixth.—As to alleged failure to separate the feeble-minded 
from the mentally normal children. 

Except as they might have come together in quarantine, or 
temporarily under some condition making absolute separation im¬ 
possible, it does not appear either that there was any mingling of 
these two classes or that any harm whatever resulted from oc¬ 
casional contact between them. 

Seventh .—As to the alleged use by employees of the clothing of 
inmates. 

That this occurred to some extent seems to have been probable 
but considering the class of employees made possible by the ex¬ 
tremely low and insufficient wages paid by the city there is nothing 
surprising about it. 

Eighth.—As to the alleged failure to safe-guard inmates from 
fire and violation of rules by ivatchmen through failure to make 
their required rounds. 

No evidence could he had in support of this allegation. It ap¬ 
pears that a contract was let providing for the systematic inspec¬ 
tion of fire-protection apparatus and for fire-drills and that these 
drills were, as a rule, regularly held. At the same time it is 
possible that, owing to failure to renew the contract, there was an 
interim during which this work was not carried on. It does not 


139 


appear that the authorities of the institution were ever notified of 
the failure to renew the contract. 

Considering the condition of the buildings and the lack of funds 
to pay a better wage to some of the employees, your Com J 
mittee is of the opinion that from the evidence as well as from 
personal investigation, conditions as to the care and welfare of the 
large population of children at Randall’s Island have been excep¬ 
tionally good. The buildings were kept scrupulously clean. The 
children had every appearance of being well-fed and well-clothed. 
They seemed happy in their work and in their play. Even many 
of low mentality were engaged in some occupation. 

The Committee reiterates that it had neither the desire nor the 
intention to intervene in the disciplinary questions which arose 
out of the administration of the New York City institutions on 
Randall’s Island. It fully realizes that disciplinary authority over 
all employees properly resides in the head of the Department and 
that any legal question arising from the exercise of such authority 
must ordinarily be settled by the courts. The investigation into 
conditions at Randall’s Island was caused solely by the wide spread 
reports of the evils, abuses and defects alleged to exist there and 
had at no time any special reference to the personalities involved. 

In conclusion the Committee desires to express its appreciation 
of the valuable services rendered by Deputy Attorney-General 
Leonard J. Obermeier of New York City, in the conduct of this 
investigation. 

Respectfully submitted, 

William R. Stewabt, Chairman, 
Stephen Smith, M. D., 

J. Richakd Kevin, M. D., 

Horace McGuire, 

New York, July 14, 1915. 

As the Deputy Attorney-General assigned to serve as counsel 
to the Special Committee of the State Board of Charities conduct¬ 
ing the inquiry into the conditions of the New York City Chil¬ 
dren’s Hospitals and Schools on Randall’s Island, I endorse and 
subscribe to the views of the Committee as set forth in the pre¬ 
ceding report. 

Leonard J. Obermeier. 


New York, July 14, 1915. 


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